"Efter att ha besegrat fascismen, nazismen och stalinismen står
nu världen inför ett nytt globalt totalitärt hot: Islamismen."
Här är hela manifestet som Salman Rushdie och elva andra framträdande
europeiska intellektuella publicerar i den franska tidningen
Charlie Hebdo idag.
MANIFESTO: Together facing the new totalitarianism
After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now
faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.
We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious
totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity
and secular values for all.
The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings
of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity
of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won
by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor
an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global
struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.
Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations.
The hate preachers bet on these feelings in order to form battalions
destined to impose a liberticidal and unegalitarian world.
But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the
choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred.
Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and
secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world
of domination: man's domination of woman, the Islamists' domination
of all the others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to
oppressed or discriminated people.
We reject « cultural relativism », which consists in accepting that men
and women of Muslim culture should be deprived of the right to equality,
freedom and secular values in the name of respect for cultures and traditions.
We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of
"Islamophobia", an unfortunate concept which confuses criticism of Islam
as a religion with stigmatisation of its believers.
We plead for the universality of freedom of expression, so that a critical
spirit may be exercised on all continents, against all abuses and all dogmas.
We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century
should be one of Enlightenment, not of obscurantism.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Chahla Chafiq
Caroline Fourest
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Irshad Manji
Mehdi Mozaffari
Maryam Namazie
Taslima Nasreen
Salman Rushdie
Antoine Sfeir
Philippe Val
Ibn Warraq
Presentations:
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, from somalian origin, is member of Dutch parliament,
member of the liberal party VVD. Writter of the film Submission which
caused the assasination of Theo Van Gogh by an islamist in november
2004, she lives under police protection.
Chahla Chafiq, writer from iranian origin, exiled in France is a novelist
and an essayist. She's the author of "Le nouvel homme islamiste , la prison
politique en Iran " (2002). She also wrote novels such as "Chemins et
brouillard" (2005).
Caroline Fourest Essayist, editor in chief of Prochoix (a review who
defend liberties against dogmatic and integrist ideologies), author of
several reference books on « laicité » and fanatism : Tirs Croisés :
la laïcité à l'épreuve des intégrismes juif, chrétien et musulman
(with Fiammetta Venner), Frère Tariq : discours, stratégie et méthode
de Tariq Ramadan, et la Tentation obscurantiste (Grasset, 2005).
She receieved the National prize of laicité in 2005.
Bernard-Henri Lévy French philosoph, born in Algeria, engaged
against all the XXth century « ism » (Fascism, antisemitism, totalitarism,
terrorism), he is the author of La Barbarie à visage humain, L'Idéologie
française, La Pureté dangereuse, and more recently American Vertigo.
Irshad Manji is a Fellow at Yale University and the internationally
best-selling author of "The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call
for Reform in Her Faith" (en francais: "Musulmane Mais Libre").
She speaks out for free expression based on the Koran itself. Née en
Ouganda, elle a fui ce pays avec sa famille musulmane d'origine
indienne à l'âge de quatre ans et vit maintenant au Canada, où ses
émissions et ses livres connaissent un énorme succès.
Mehdi Mozaffari, professor from iranian origin and exiled in Denmark,
is the author of several articles and books on islam and islamism
such as : Authority in Islam: From Muhammad to Khomeini, Fatwa:
Violence and Discourtesy and Glaobalization and Civilizations.
Maryam Namazie Writer, TV International English producer;
Director of the Worker-communist Party of Iran's International
Relations; and 2005 winner of the National Secular Society's
Secularist of the Year award.
Taslima Nasreen is born in Bangladesh. Doctor, her positions
defending women and minorities brought her in trouble with
a comittee of integrist called « Destroy Taslima » and to be
persecuted as « apostate »
Salman Rushdie is the author of nine novels, including Midnight's
Children, The Satanic Verses and, most recently, Shalimar the
Clown. He has received many literary awards, including the
Booker Prize, the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel, Germany's
Author of the Year Award, the European Union's Aristeion Prize,
the Budapest Grand Prize for Literature, the Premio Mantov and
the Austrian State Prize for European Literature. He is a
Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres, an Honorary
Professor in the Humanities at M.I.T., and the president of
PEN American Center. His books have been translated into
over 40 languages.
Philippe Val Director of publication of Charlie Hebdo
(Leftwing french newspaper who have republished the
cartoons on the prophet Muhammad by solidarity with
the danish citizens targeted by islamists).
Ibn Warraq , author notably of Why I am Not a Muslim ;
eaving Islam : Apostates Speak Out ; and The Origins of
the Koran , is at present Research Fellow at a New York
Institute conducting philological and historical research into
the Origins of Islam and its Holy Book.
Antoine Sfeir : Born in Lebanon, christian, Antoine Sfeir
choose french nationality to live in an universalist and « laïc »
(real secular) country. He is the director of Les cahiers de l'Orient
and has published several reference books on islamism such as
Les réseaux d'Allah (2001) et Liberté, égalité, Islam : la
République face au communautarisme (2005).
(översättning: Jyllands-Posten)