Sir: Why I read The Spectator I can't think, since
every issue contains remarks calculat- ed to offend the liberal mind.
John Simpson's article on Salman Rushdie was particularly obnoxious. Simp- son seems to want 'the laws of blasphemy applied to religion in general' instead of just to Christianity. Yet, as the Gay News case showed in 1977, these laws are already a grotesque anachronism: to extend them further would impose intolerable restric- tions on free expression. Simpson claims that Rushdie is 'holding hostage those of us who respect Islam and also care about liter- ature and artistic freedom'. But (apart from the impertinence of comparing his lot to
LETTERS
that of the threatened author) this begs the question of how far a faith that endorses the fatwa is worthy of respect. Finally he argues that to show support for Rushdie `will lead to more Muslim extremism'. But a policy of appeasement is as shameful and disastrous now as when employed towards aggressors in the 1930s.
This is not to accept the stereotype of a black, mediaeval, regressive Islam. It is to say that until Simpson's 'perfectly moder- ate, rational Muslims' are prepared to tol- erate publication of The Satanic Verses even though it offends them, the rest of us should stand up for Salman Rushdie.
Piers Brendon
4b Millington Road, Cambridge
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