Say it. Say it in as many words. Say that ‘Gustakh-e-Rasool should not be punishable by death’. Financial fraud accused Washington Post columnist on Monday took to social media to claim that she deleted her tweet wishing recovery for Salman Rushdie because of a grammatical error and how her ‘editor’ were getting tagged in it.
First of all, how many of us even know who are the editors at Washington Post to tag them personally for some ‘grammatical error’ in Rana Ayyub’s tweet? Especially when the tweet doesn’t even have any such grave error to begin with.
As one can see, while her tweet wishing well for Rushdie did not have any error. ‘Recovers back’ is tautology, but not exactly an error that needs a tweet be deleted. The tweet where she claimed her editors were being ‘unnecessarily tagged’ indeed have an error, though. Instead of ‘were’, Rana wrote ‘where’. Even after 12 hours after posting this tweet with a grammatical error, Rana Ayyub has not deleted it. This, when quite a few people have ‘unnecessarily tagged’ Washington Post for their columnist’s error.
Further, the article she has plugged to ‘prove’ that she indeed cares for Salman Rushdie’s wellbeing and tomtom her bravery is nothing but cowardice as she is actually comparing Rushdie stabbing for ‘Gustakh-e-Rasool’ to boycott calls for Aamir Khan film Laal Singh Chaddha which has not resulted in any riots or murders or fatwas for murders. Sab kuch shantipurvak tareeke se hua hai.
Rana’s article was nothing but cover fire for Islamists to prove how they are not the only ones who are the ‘bad’ people. To show ‘look here, look at the Hindu nationalists under Modi who are giving boycott calls for a movie with Muslim actor’. That film itself is terribly made and audience rejected it does not matter. The art of creating false equivalence and to play victim at the drop of the hat is something we all need to learn. Or maybe not.
In reality, Rana Ayyub’s tweet wishing recovery to Salman Rushdie had drawn ire of her fellow coreligionists who were upset she could wish well for someone who had insulted Prophet Muhammad. In the late 80s, after Rushdie wrote the book The Satanic Verses, believed to be a satire on the Quran and life of Prophet Muhammad, fatwas were issued against him. India was the first country to ban the book.
Since the publishing of the book that is considered ‘blasphemy’ by Muslims, Rushdie has been living under the threat because of the fatwa issued against him. On August 12 when he was about to give a lecture at Chautauqua Institution in New York, he was attacked by one Hadi Matar, who seems to be inspired by Iran leaders. Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini also issued a fatwa, calling for Rushdie’s death. A bounty was offered to anyone who kills Rushdie.
More than three decades after the bounty on his head was announced, Rushdie was stabbed publicly in New York.
When Rana tweeted for his recovery, she was attacked by Islamists who felt that she should not wish well upon someone who ‘insulted Prophet Muhammad’.
Here are some more.
So essentially, Rana wants us to believe that she deleted her a tweet without any grammatical error praying for recovery of a man, accused of being ‘Gastukh-e-Rasool’, and which was getting condemned by Islamists, because of ‘grammatical error’. She, obviously, didn’t tweet praying for his recovery again. Even in her tweet ‘clarifying’ that her Editors were being tagged, she did not condemn killing for ‘insulting Prophet’.
And no one is buying her feeble attempt. In fact, even her coreligionists are not believing her bluff.
Here are some sample tweets.
Rana, with her divine eyes, couldn’t manage to see hundreds of tweets by her coreligionists condemning her for praying for Salman Rushdie’s recovery but ‘unnecessary tweets tagging Editor’ she saw. Maan gaye, aapki roohaani nazar, or aapke tagged editor, dono ko!
But not just her. ‘Fact-checker’ Muhammad Zubair who was one of the first ones to share the partial audio clip from Times Now debate, has not ‘fact-checked’ Nupur. He called her ‘hateful bigot’ and called her many names, but did not tell the world where she was wrong. What Nupupur said that was not already written in the Islamic holy books. ‘Fact checker’ Muhammad Zubair has not given us actual version about Prophet Mohammad and how it was different from what Nupur Sharma said. Surely writing facts about your divine figures cannot be ‘gustakhi’, right?
Every single prominent Muslim, who has condemned ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma for her comments on Prophet Muhammad, has not condemned death threats to her. Not one of them has said that death should not be the ‘punishment’ for ‘Gustakh-e-Rasool’. Islamic religious heads, clerics, mainstream politicians – have all justified beheading calls, announced bounty on head of Nupur Sharma and even justified how those who are killed for supporting her perhaps deserved it for supporting a ‘Gustakh’.
Prominent Muslim celebrity ‘journalists’ like Rana Ayyub, Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Radio Mirchi RJ Sayema, Alt News’ Muhammad Zubair, The Wire’s Alishan Jafri – none of them have said in as many words that no one should be killed for ‘Gustakh-e-Rasool’. Is it because they themselves believe it, that ‘blasphemy’ of divine Islamic figures is punishable by death?
They may ‘condemn’ threats, but will not say in as many words that ‘Gustakh-e-Rasool’ ki saza should not be ‘Sar tan se juda‘.