''A Brief History of Blasphemy: Liberalism, Censorship and the Satanic Verses'' is a 1990 book by
Richard Webster, in which the author discusses the
controversy over
Salman Rushdie
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and We ...
's novel ''
The Satanic Verses
''The Satanic Verses'' is the fourth novel of British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie. First published in September 1988, the book was inspired by the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. As with his previous books, Rushdie used magical realism ...
'' (1988). Webster critiques the freedom to
blaspheme
Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religiou ...
, and argues against ''The Crime of Blasphemy'' (which advocated the abolition of
Britain's blasphemy laws
Laws prohibiting blasphemy and blasphemous libel in the United Kingdom date back to the mediaeval times as common law and in some special cases as enacted legislation. The common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel were formally abolis ...
"without replacement").
Summary
Webster notes that he named the book after the fourth section of ''The Crime of Blasphemy'', a pamphlet issued by the International Committee for the Defence of Salman Rushdie and his Publishers, and that his work is influenced by
Karen Armstrong
Karen Armstrong (born 14 November 1944) is a British author and commentator of Irish Catholic descent known for her books on comparative religion. A former Roman Catholic religious sister, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and ...
's ''Holy War'' (1988) and
Norman Cohn
Norman Rufus Colin Cohn FBA (12 January 1915 – 31 July 2007) was a British academic, historian and writer who spent 14 years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex.
Life
Cohn was born in London, to ...
's books ''
The Pursuit of the Millennium ''The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages'' (1957, revised and expanded in 1970) is Norman Cohn's study of millenarian cult movements.
Covering a wide span of time, Cohn's book discusses ...
'' (1957), ''
Warrant for Genocide
''Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World-Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion'', by Norman Cohn, is a critical work about ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion''.
This scholarly book explores the history, origin, and wo ...
'' (1967), and ''
Europe's Inner Demons'' (1975). He also approvingly cites Muslim writer
Shabbir Akhtar
Shabbir Akhtar is a British Muslim philosopher, poet, researcher, writer and multilingual scholar. He is on the Faculty of Theology and Religions at the University of Oxford. His interests include political Islam, Quranic exegesis, revival of p ...
's ''Be Careful With Muhammad!'' (1989).
Webster describes ''A Brief History of Blasphemy'' as "an attempt to show, without ever aspiring to completeness or comprehensiveness, that the picture of blasphemy which is presented by the authors of the International Committee's document is incomplete, and in some respects, seriously misleading." Webster gives the controversy surrounding
Monty Python's film ''
The Life of Brian
''Monty Python's Life of Brian'' (also known as ''Life of Brian'') is a 1979 British comedy film starring and written by the comedy group Monty Python (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin). It wa ...
'' (1979), which he calls "a rather slight production" as a satire on religion, as an example of the way in which blasphemy has been restrained not by force of law but by internalised censorship.
Publication history
''A Brief History of Blasphemy'' was first published in 1990 by The Orwell Press.
Reception
According to the journalist
Bob Woffinden
Robert Woffinden (31 January 1948 – 1 May 2018) was a British investigative journalist. Formerly a reporter with the ''New Musical Express'', he later specialised in investigating miscarriages of justice. He wrote about a number of high-profi ...
, ''A Brief History of Blasphemy'' was widely praised in the immediate aftermath of the controversy over ''The Satanic Verses''. Some reviewers suggested that Webster shows that liberal support for unrestricted freedom of speech is inconsistent with other liberal values, and demonstrates the religious origins of belief in freedom of expression. The book has been described as "thoughtful" and "closely argued" by the journalist
Tim Radford,
[ Radford 1990.] and "energetic and ingenious" by academic
Lorna Sage
Lorna Sage (13 January 1943 – 11 January 2001) was an English academic, literary critic and author, remembered especially for contributing to consideration of women's writing and for a memoir of her early life, '' Bad Blood'' (2000).ODNB entry ...
,
[ Sage 1990.] and Webster has been credited with explaining how "we have internalised puritan
iconoclasm
Iconoclasm (from Greek: grc, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, εἰκών + κλάω, lit=image-breaking. ''Iconoclasm'' may also be conside ...
to the point where we mistake it for a secular universal truth",
and with showing that the western liberal concept of "inner conscience" upon which the secularist arguments of ''The Crime of Blasphemy'' were founded is a secular transformation of Puritanism.
[ McGuigan 1992. pp. 202-203.]
Commentators have interpreted ''A Brief History of Blasphemy'' as a broadly liberal critique of liberalism,
or an attempt to criticize the liberal establishment on its own terms.
Webster shows, in Petersson's view, that Rushdie combines a potentially violent and offensive code with the holiest Islamic traditions, and that the language in ''The Satanic Verses'' has a charge that he was too careless with. According to Ruvani Ranashina, Webster shows that a civilised society should have constraints on the freedom to act in ways that have adverse effects on others, and that freedom without responsibility is dangerous, especially if offensive and damaging to a community. She believes his critique of the freedom to blaspheme implicitly supports the group of Muslims who unsuccessfully sought to invoke
British blasphemy laws that applied only to Christianity against ''The Satanic Verses'' in 1989. Webster has been credited by the novelist
J. M. Coetzee
John Maxwell Coetzee OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African–Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in ...
with showing that "Rushdie has been made to stand for an entire intellectual establishment" that compounded the outrage ''The Satanic Verses'' caused to Muslims by celebrating it. His criticism of ''The Crime of Blasphemy'' (which advocated the abolition of Britain's blasphemy laws "without replacement") is seen as convincing by academic Jim McGuigan.
French author Patrice Dartevielle described Webster's work as "anti-liberal" and condemned support for "repressive legislation" (i.e. new or renewed blasphemy laws), while also acknowledging that Webster's concern about Muslims was "noble".
Rowan Williams
Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held from December 2002 to December 2012. Previously the Bish ...
, the
Archbishop of Canterbury, in the James Callaghan Memorial lecture "Religious Hatred and Religious Offence" delivered in January 2008, called the book "immensely intelligent", stating that Webster shows that absolute freedom of speech is neither desirable nor possible. Williams said that Webster "offers some extraordinary examples of 'liberal' aggression and ignorant bigotry" during the controversy over ''The Satanic Verses'' in 1989 and 1990, and that he approved of his argument that writers and dramatists who defend the right to offend religion show a lack of imagination, in that they fail to understand the possibility that offending religion may cause real mental suffering.
[ Williams 2011.]
See also
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Religious offence
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brief History of Blasphemy
1990 non-fiction books
Blasphemy
Books by Richard Webster (British author)
English-language books
Orwell Press books
Works about freedom of expression
Islam-related controversies
Salman Rushdie