Internalised Fatwa
In this 20th anniversary year of Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini's infamous fatwa calling for the killing of British-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie over the alleged blasphemy of his novel "The Satanic Verses", the fatwa's long-term repercussions continue to be felt in Britain.
Some British Muslims reacted with fury to the 1988 publication of "The Satanic Verses", with demonstrations, public burnings of the book and attacks on bookshops. This was the first time that British Muslims had so dramatically flexed their collective muscle, and it marked an increasing radicalisation among some in the community.
In the two decades since Khomeini issued his fatwa of February 1989, concerns over the radicalisation of elements among Britain's 1.6 million or more Muslims have risen up the political agenda. This has been particularly the case since the four "7/7" suicide bombings on the London transport system on 7 July 2005 in which 52 innocent people were killed. The shock of the bombings was intensified by the revelation that three of the bombers had been born and brought up in Britain.
The "slightly mischievous" quality of his writing
The British writer Hanif Kureishi, born in London in 1954 to an English mother and a Pakistani father of Indian origin, decided to mark the 20th anniversary of the fatwa by adapting for the stage his 1995 second novel "The Black Album".
The play of "The Black Album" has run at the Cottesloe Theatre in London, part of the National Theatre, until 7 October. It will now embark on a five-week tour of England. The play is a joint production of the pioneering cross-cultural theatre company Tara Arts and the National Theatre, and is directed by Tara's artistic director and co-founder Jatinder Verma.
When Kureishi suggested to Verma last year that they attempt a theatrical dramatisation of "The Black Album", Verma was attracted by Kureishi's vision, and by the "slightly mischievous" quality of his writing. He says: "I felt this was absolutely the right way to tackle this subject, the dangers of the rise of fundamentalism in our contemporary society: to do it with a slightly mischievous look".
Kureishi notes that "The Black Album" is "set at a pivotal point of change". In addition to the fatwa, 1989 saw the coming down of the Berlin wall and the collapse of communism. The premiership of Margaret Thatcher had been in place for ten years and consumer capitalism was riding high. There were also striking innovations in popular music, with the rise of rave culture and the widespread use of the drug ecstasy. All these developments form a backdrop to "The Black Album".
The chronicler of multicultural Britain
Kureishi has over the past quarter of a century produced an impressive body of ground-breaking work that makes him the chronicler par excellence of multicultural Britain. In the 2008 New Years Honours List he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
Kureishi always had the knack of being ahead of his time, and in "The Black Album" he depicted trends and arguments that are still significant. In researching the novel in the early 1990s, he spoke to young British Muslim radicals in colleges and mosques. In those days, they were less guarded in their speech than they would be today. He heard "speeches about homosexuals, Israel, lipstick and whatever, and it was an incredible sort of theatre."
The play opens with Shahid, a young British man born to Pakistani parents, leaving his quiet hometown of Sevenoaks, Kent, for college in London. He is played by the lithe-bodied actor Jonathan Bonnici with an appealing air of eager innocence.
Shahid is carrying a computer his late father gave him, and has aspirations to become a writer. He is soon drawn into the circle of the Muslim student activist Riaz (Alexander Andreou), originally from Lahore, and Riaz's acolytes Chad, Hat and Tahira.
In parallel with his growing closeness to his new Muslim friends, Shahid is seduced by his lecturer Deedee Osgood (Tanya Franks), who is some years his senior. Provocatively-dressed Deedee leads Shahid into raves, drugs, wine and sex. She wants to immerse him in popular culture as an area of legitimate study, and encourages him to write about the pop singer Prince.
Caught between two world views
Shahid suffers seizures after a heavy night of clubbing and drug taking with Deedee, and it is Riaz who administers first aid. Shahid considers that Riaz saved his life, and his loyalty to him is reinforced. Riaz asks him to type up his book of poems "The Martyr's Imagination" on his computer.
Shahid is caught between the two world views represented by Riaz and Deedee. Riaz and his followers are at first fired up as a reaction to the virulent anti-Asian racism of the late 1980s. They step in to help a Muslim family which is being victimised by racists. But as Riaz's anger and sense of grievance becomes more and more directed at "the writer" (not named, but clearly Rushdie) Shahid's values are tested.
As someone who longs to be a writer himself, his belief in freedom of expression comes to the fore and he is appalled when a copy of "The Satanic Verses" is burned by Riaz's group.
Shahid's brother Chili is a rogue element in the story, a flashy knife-carrying character who likes to make a flamboyant entrance in his purple suit and dark glasses, boasting of his latest model BMW car. His nefarious activities include drug dealing; at one point he hides a stash of drugs in a copy of "The Satanic Verses". His sidekick strapper (Glyn Pritchard) is a white drug dealer with violent and racist tendencies.
Chili is estranged from his glamorous wife Zulma (Shereen Martineau, who also plays Tahira). Tahira, a former classmate of Benazir Bhutto's, is a commanding presence in high heels and leopard skin coat.
Disillusioned lefties and Islamist ideologues
The alliance between factions of the left and certain Islamist groups has been a controversial and divisive element on the British political scene in recent years. Kureishi portrays this relationship through Deedee's husband, the pony-tailed Marxist lecturer Brownlow (Sean Gallagher).
Brownlow has been so traumatized by the fall of Communism that he has developed a stutter. He embraces with enthusiasm the Islamism of his students, helping to nurture and justify it. He cites Foucault in describing the Iranian revolution as "a pure triumph of the Iranian working class".
Gallagher also plays George Rudder, the opportunistic Labour leader of the local council who is ready to exploit the causes of his Muslim constituents for political ends. As the campaign against the writer grows, Riaz claims that he has seen the letter aliph in a piece of aubergine which he puts on display as a sign and miracle related to "the writer" and the Iranians. Brownlow and Rudder opportunistically go along with him for their own reasons.
As well as objecting to the campaign designed to silence "the writer", Shahid has also enraged Riaz and his followers through changes he has made to Riaz's poems in "The Martyr's Imagination". At the climax of the play Riaz's group turns against Shahid and pursues him to Deedee's house.
In the novel, Hat is fatally injured when a petrol bomb, with which he is attacking a bookshop, blows up in his face. In the play there is an echo of the 7/7 bombings, in which the bombs were carried in rucksacks, when Hat picks up a rucksack. The play ends with a bang.
The difficult subject of censorship and terrorism
"The Black Album" is fast-paced, comic and entertaining with constant coming and going of characters through the doors of the set. It is sometimes chaotic, and in places it loses momentum. Passages of dialogue are taken from the novel verbatim.
Some critics felt that the play of "The Black Album" did not capture the novel's panoramic view of London and its myriad incidents and characters. Kureishi admitted to Time magazine that the reviews had been a bit "rough" but that's life as a writer: "you've got to take risks, do weirdo stuff".
The production seems in general to be enjoyed by audiences, and it has been playing to capacity houses. Verma told Qantara that the reactions of audiences "have echoed what we hoped for when we decided to produce the show. They have journeyed with us through Hanif Kureishi's witty adaptation, finding welcome humour in the difficult contemporary subject of censorship and terrorism."
Lost the battle, won the war
He added: "I get the impression after 20-odd shows that audiences are also welcoming a set of Asian characters and lifestyles rarely seen on the stage, characters who have urban brio and can be as brutal and loving and impassioned as any other modern Briton."
In the meantime, debates on the lasting fallout of the Rushdie affair go on. The BBC-2 TV flagship weekly arts discussion programme Newsnight Review followed its review of "The Black Album" with a heated studio discussion. One of the participants was the writer, lecturer and broadcaster Kenan Malik, author of the recent book "From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and its Legacy".
Malik argued that Rushdie's critics have lost the battle – in that "The Satanic Verses" continues to be published – but "have won the war because the argument at the heart of their campaign, that it is morally wrong to give offence to other cultures and beliefs, has become much more widespread and central to the way we look at things. In that sense you could say that the fatwa has become internalised."
Susannah Tarbush
© Qantara.de 2009
Susannah Tarbush is a London-based British freelance journalist specialising in the Middle East who currently writes for Al-Hayat, Saudi Gazette and Banipal magazine.
Qantara.de
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