Salman Rushdie never made these comments about Muslims; They were falsely attributed to him

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In the context of recent attack on Novelist Salman Rushdie, a post attributing to him is being widely shared on social media. The post claims that Salman Rushdie has made these damaging comments about Muslims all over the world. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.

Claim: Author Salman Rushdie made these damaging comments on Muslims – β€œπ‘΄π’–π’”π’π’Šπ’Žπ’”, π’˜π’‰π’†π’•π’‰π’†π’“ π’•π’‰π’†π’š π’π’Šπ’—π’† π’Šπ’ π‘·π’‚π’Œπ’Šπ’”π’•π’‚π’ 𝒐𝒓 π‘°π’π’…π’Šπ’‚, π‘΅π’Šπ’ˆπ’†π’“π’Šπ’‚ 𝒐𝒓 π‘Ίπ’šπ’“π’Šπ’‚, π’˜π’‰π’†π’•π’‰π’†π’“ π’•π’‰π’†π’š 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒐𝒓 𝒐𝒓 π’“π’Šπ’„π’‰, π’Šπ’π’π’Šπ’•π’†π’“π’‚π’•π’† 𝒐𝒓 𝒆𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅, π’•π’‰π’†π’Šπ’“ π’π’π’π’š π’ˆπ’π’‚π’ π’Šπ’” 𝒕𝒐 π’…π’†π’”π’•π’“π’π’š 𝒕𝒉𝒆 π’˜π’‰π’π’π’† π’π’‚π’•π’Šπ’π’ π’ƒπ’š π’•π’†π’“π’“π’π’“π’Šπ’”π’Ž, π’ƒπ’π’Žπ’ƒ 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒔, π’‘π’π’‘π’–π’π’‚π’•π’Šπ’π’ π’†π’™π’‘π’π’π’”π’Šπ’π’, π’“π’Šπ’π’•π’” 𝒂𝒏𝒅 π’‹π’Šπ’‰π’‚π’… π’Šπ’ 𝒕𝒉𝒆 π’π’‚π’Žπ’† 𝒐𝒇 π‘°π’”π’π’‚π’Ž.”

Fact: Salman Rushdie, through a tweet, clarified that he never made any such comments about Muslims. Moreover, there is no mention of any such comments in his books, interviews, and speeches regarding this. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE

Upon searching the web with relevant keywords, we found a tweet by Salman Rushdie in which he clarified that he never made any such comments on Muslims. He also urged Twitter to take down the post which is being falsely attributed to him.

Moreover, we searched his books, speeches and interviews and couldn’t find any such statement by him anywhere. However, according to media reports, Rushdie’s book β€˜The Satanic Verses’ has been banned in Iran since 1988, as many Muslims consider it to be blasphemous. A year later, Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death. A bounty of over $3 million was also offered for anyone who kills Rushdie.

In an interview with Sekhar Gupta in 2013, when asked about the future of Islamic world, Salman Rushdie replied, β€œHere’s a simple fact. The world of Islam has to enter the modern world. It has to learn how to live in the modern world. This world in which information is free, in which people do not live according to, let’s say, the cultural codes of Arabia in the 7th century. And you can see that there’s a great desire among the young people. At some point, in order to thrive, those countries have to modernise their ideas, their thinking, their institutions and they have to offer their people more liberty”

To sum it up, though Salman Rushdie is critical about Islamic fundamentalism, he never made such comments about Muslims as in the viral post.