Hyderabad, February 02: With Milad-un Nabi just round the corner, the Salman Rushdie controversy couldn’t have found its way into the city at a more sensitive time. A seminar on the controversial author which was scheduled to be held at Urdu Hall here on Wednesday was cancelled by the police under pressure from right-wing Muslim politicians.
Ironically, the objective of the seminar was to discuss the fundamental rights to practice religion, to protest and to discourage the demonization of Muslims.
While organisers are miffed with the police for the ‘bullying tactics’ employed by them to forcibly halt the event, police officials maintain that it was necessary to stop the event in the interest of maintaining communal harmony in the city. The organisers said that they started receiving calls from the police from 3 pm on Tuesday, persuading them to call off the event. They said the police presence at the venue itself was intimidating.
Organisers said that the participants invited to speak at the event __ ‘The Rushdie Affair: A New Perspective on the Freedom of Expression’ __ were intellectuals from all religious communities who wished to express their point of view in a non-violent manner and without inciting communal hatred.
Fatima Shahnaz, organiser of the seminar and president of India Peace Organisation, said, “We had planned peaceful and non-confrontational discussions among intellectuals to discuss ways to tackle the censorship of Muslim voices in debates pertaining to Salman Rushdie’s participation in the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF). We are against their stereotyping as obscurantist and archaic. It is unfortunate that we have been forcibly silenced by police and politicians.”
Citing the absence of permission from police to organise the seminar, Narayaguda inspector Girish Kumar said, “The organisers didn’t take our permission. Therefore the seminar had to be stopped.
With a sensitive topic and an expected turnout of 100 people, things can go out of hand. We didn’t want to take chances.” Other befuddled organisers and participants on the condition of anonymity said that it would have been impossible for the audience to turn incendiary or violent because the invitees were the ‘intellectual elite’. They alleged that MBT corporator Amjadullah Khan was involved in the forced cancellation of the seminar.
When contacted Amjadullah Khan said, “Discussions of ‘The Satanic Verses’ and Salman Rushdie at any event just before the prophet’s birth anniversary are completely unnecessary. The city doesn’t need such events. Let peace prevail in the city.”
–Agencies