One way street
Dialogue among civilizations or clash of civilizations?

Fariborz Shamshiri
July 7, 2007
iranian.com

"Dialogue Among Civilizations" is a one of misleading terms I have ever heard! what does it mean? it means there are some civilizations which we are one of them and we are going to talk! Duh! is this Islamic country civilized?! in what way? let's just review some news and see how much our country and Islamic regions are civilized!

Salman Rushdie was still in the news last week! why? because he was appointed a Knight Bachelor for "services to literature" by Queen Elizabeth. well? good for him! honesty, he deserve it! if you don't like his novel, it's up to you but at least he spent years underground! so he deserve more than that because he is courageous man to write his own ideas and ignore Islamic regular fear and cruel on any free discussion!

Again Muslim civilized civilization was protested against Rushdie's title! I'm happy his still alive but there some sad stories about this foolish fatwa.

Also it's good to know Mr. Rushdie, himself is born into a Muslim family in Mumbai, India. he lived in England and some Moslems still believe there were no insult to prophet Mohammad or Islam in the novel and it's just a novel. I think so he had merely exposed Islam‚s Traditions. so what's wrong with it?1 It seems Islam is so much corrupted which clergies should hide the truth about it for their own sake so they are terrifying people from more investigation and writing about those truth. Will their 1400 years old doctrine collapse if people have freedom to know more? I think so yes.

In last couple of weeks, I spent sometime with my new Japanese friend and we discussed about their knowledge about Iran and Islam! I tried to write down as well as possible.

Hitoshi Igarashi (1947˜July 11, 1991) was the Japanese translator of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses. After Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (religious edict) calling for the death of "Even if Salman Rushdie repents and becomes the most pious man of all time, it is incumbent on every Muslim to employ everything he has got, his life and wealth, to send him to Hell....", he was stabbed to death on July 11, 1991 at his workplace, the University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki because he was one of translators of the book and two other translators of the book survived attempted assassinations.

It's believed he has been murdered by an Iranian Shiite Muslim who carrying out the fatwa issued by ayatollah Khomeini!

As I know, Igarashi known to be an Islamic scholar who had lived in Iran and decided to translate Satanic Verses just to mediate between Islamic world and Rushdie. In his translation not only he didn't attempt to force the western form of freedom of expression to Muslims but also he tried to show common middle ground to end this foolish conflict. he had no clue that Islamic tolerance was completely intolerable! which he wished to demonstrate it.

Well, for me it wasn't news! we have had such stories about Shariati, Beheshti and others! (Either it doesn't necessarily mean I believed in their interpretation of Islam). These guys tried to bring new definitions of Islam which it was fun for youth and something acceptable but in reality most clergy people in Iran rejected them, burnt their writings and books! a total misery!

In fact in real Islam there is lack of tolerance to any idea and people whom wanted to demonstrate something even in a tolerable way to Islam was banned (sometimes get killed) by real Muslims!

If Khomeini was an smart clergy leader and he was sure about Islam, he could invite Rushdie to open discussion instead of calling his death with his generous $1M bounty! is this the way a leader should act in this era? or is this barbaric approach? Sometimes I feel humanity stopped in past 1400 years ago!

Well, I don't see any civilization in Islamic culture nor tolerance for other culture values (e.g. freedom of speech)! Unfortunately it is one way street and finally it leads us to Clash of human being! Don't get me wrong, I love to see people (from different cultures and religions) have a dialogue but what I see from human behavior and his stupidity (no offece to anybody), we would be lucky to see that day. So good luck to humankind! Comment

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References
* Dialogue Among Civilization
* Salman Rushdie
* Hitoshi Igarashi