By Editor
Days after celebrated author Salman Rushdie’s controversial novel ‘The Satanic Verses’ made a comeback in India after a 36-year-old ban, Islamic clerics have once again called for the continued ban on the book.
Maulana Yasood Abbas, the General Secretary of the All India Shia Personal Law Board (AISPLB), urged the government to uphold the ban on ‘The Satanic Verses’, emphasising the importance of maintaining respect for Muslim sentiments.
Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi, the president of the All India Muslim Jamaat, echoed similar sentiments, raising alarm over the “potential harm” that the book’s availability could cause to the nation’s social and religious harmony.
“I request the government that in the manner in which the then government had imposed a ban on the eighties, this ban should continue,” he said, warning that allowing the book to circulate could escalate tensions and divide the country along religious lines.
The Satanic Verses, which was banned in 1988 in India under the Rajiv Gandhi government due to its content deemed blasphemous by Muslim organisations, is available once again with Delhi’s bookseller.
The book’s return follows a significant legal development. In November, the Delhi High Court closed the proceedings on a petition challenging the Rajiv Gandhi government’s ban on the import of ‘The Satanic Verses’, saying since authorities have failed to produce the relevant notification, it has to be “presumed that it does not exist
