| Synopsis: |
In 1989, after the Ayatollah Khomeini declared a fatwa against Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses, Fay Weldon published Sacred Cows, a pamphlet critical of the fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran. Weldon's pamphlet received a lot of attention on publication - mostly criticism of her perceived `Islamophobia' - but Weldon set out to enforce the notion that no religion should have the right to issue threats and intimidation; no religion should hinder free expression. In Sacred Cows, Weldon criticizes all aspects of British society - Murdoch and the Sun's page 3 girls; white, liberal complacence; problems with education and the NHS - and argues that the affront to Muslim people in Britain was not caused by publication of The Satanic Verses itself but rather by the `awfulness of the society we have allowed to grow up around us'. The Satanic Verses is remedy, according to Weldon, to a fractured, ailing society. Publishing literature like this proves that our society `may yet be well and our brave new God of individual conscience may yet arise'.Originally published by Chatto & Windus as part of the 'Chatto Counterblasts' strand, this ebook edition is reissued with a new introduction by the author, as part of the Brain Shots series: the pre-eminent source for high quality, short-form digital non-fiction. |