An Irish MP has said that Salman Rushdie — the author stabbed by a radical Islamist earlier this year — wrote a “threatening” book that “begged a response”.
Bernard Durkan TD, a member of the ruling Fine Gael party, has lambasted author Salman Rushdie in the Irish parliament for writing what the MP described as a “threatening” book that “begged a response”, seemingly from radical Islamists.
An award-winning author, Rushdie was left seriously maimed after being attacked by a radical Islamist with a knife at an event earlier this year over his writing, most notably The Satanic Verses.
However, while many politicians have voiced their support for Rushdie in the wake of the brutal attack, Durkan on Thursday instead opted to lambast the man in a speech labelled “deeply concerning” by critics.
Rushdie has been the target of Islamist militants for over three decades, with the Iranian state still maintaining a $3 million bounty on the artist’s head to this day.
“The book was seen as an expression of freedom of speech but I saw it as something else,” the TD told the Irish parliament. “I saw it as something that begged a response.”
“It was threatening people of selected religions,” he continued. “Those people saw a reason for retaliation because they were sensitive about it and retaliation happened.”
“However, nobody knocked on Salman Rushdie’s door and told him he had started up something he should not have and that it was of no help,” he went on to say.
Continuing his speech to the lower house, Durkan appeared to voice his support for incoming hate speech laws, telling his fellow representatives that the ability to “hate” should not be permitted in modern Ireland.
“Nobody has a right to hate or should ever hate. There is no reason for it,” Durkan declared.
“The suggestion to a radio station that a person wishes to hate and wishes to be allowed to do so and say so is wrong,” Durkan argued. “It gets away from the subject, undermines our society and does us damage.”
In the wake of Durkan’s comments, a number of people have come out to express concern that the ruling party politician appears to be describing the attack on Rushdie as being in some way understandable.
“It is deeply concerning that a government TD appears like he might be sympathizing with the perpetrator of a violent attack on someone exercising their freedom of speech,” a spokesman for campaign group Free Speech Ireland told Breitbart Europe.
The group representative expressed particular worry that this was coming from an elected representative whose party was currently pushing through hate speech legislation that has previously been described as enabling “thought policing“.
“Sadly it appears to be part of the trend for Ireland’s ruling party who currently are attempting to give themselves the legal authority to shut down people like Salman Rushdie,” the spokesman said.
“It should be noted that laws curtailing speech will always lead to the curtailment of a free press,” they went on to argue.