By TCN Staff Reporter,
Ajmer: Muslim Ekta Manch, an umbrella body of Muslim panchayat heads in Ajmer, has demanded the Rajasthan government to not allow the likely video conferencing of controversial writer Salman Rushdie at the Jaipur Literature Festival on 24th Jan. The Manch also condemned reading from the banned The Satanic Verses book of Rushdie at Friday evening session of the festival, and termed it a conspiracy to provoke Muslims.
Talking to TCN, Mr Muzaffar Bharti, Media In-charge of Muslim Ekta Manch, said the state government should not allow the video conferencing of Rushdie or at least conduct full recording of the video conferencing so that action could be taken against the organizers if Rushdie speaks controversial.
He alleged that the organizers of the festival have deliberately doing things to hurt the sentiments of Muslims. In 2007 they invited Rushdie. In 2010 they invited another controversial writer Ayan Hirsi Ali whose entry has been banned in her home country Somalia for writing against Islam and Shariah. And this year they again invited Rushdie and when he didn’t come, the organizers pushed writers to read from The Satanic Verses.
The Manch, which is headed by chief priest of Ajmer Dargah, has strongly condemned the reading from the banned book and termed it as a conspiracy to provoke Muslims.
“As part of a well thought out plan, famous writer Hari Kunzru read from the book and flashed it. He wanted to provoke Muslims by hurting their religious sentiments,” said Muzaffar Bharti.
The Manch has demanded the state Congress-ruled government to conduct a high-level probe into the Friday incident and take action against the guilty.
The publication and exhibition of The Satanic Verses was banned by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1988. The ban continues today because the book has blasphemous statements about Quran and Prophet Muhammed.