Tension nahin lene kaa...

I guess this is one of the sentences from The Satanic Verses which had caused such widespread fury; followed by bans and caused Rushdie to scamper for his life. There are others, the contents of which I leave it to your hard work in locating the book first and then reading upto the chapter where I found these lines.

“….because he recalled that of course Mahound himself had been a businessman, and a damned successful one at that, a person to whom organization and rules came naturally, so how excessively convenient it was that he should have come up with such a very businesslike archangel, who handed down the management decisions of this highly corporate, if non-corporeal, God…..”

Replace Mahound with Mohammed and then see how all Islamic tenets are attributed to corporate mindsets. An economist might find it logical, but try explaining logic to a mob!!!

Just as there are many rights for every human, the right to dislike something is also part of that bunch of rights. But violence, threats don't come into this family!! No, sir!!!

Its as simple as this. Just because someone calls you by a real bad name, it does not mean that you become that. In a similar fashion, protestors world-over; the Indian government which was eager to ban The Satanic Verses and other 'affected' people should understand that just because Salman Rushdie has given his interpretation of Islam, it does not mean that Islam turns out to be so. By carrying out such protests, bans etc you are basically insulting the intelligence of the masses. You are basically saying to them, "Look dude, I don't think you have a mind to decide for yourself. You better listen to me.".. which in my not-so-humble opinion is not correct.

I personally have seen people in my hostel possessing crappy literature about Hindu Gods. Did I wallop them? No. Did I argue with them? No. Why? I knew that my beliefs could not be shattered by such literature.

The same holds for all those who protest against a book on Shivaji, the Mitrokhin archives, some book on Indira Gandhi, a video on Gandhi, some crap Orkut communities etc.

Fanatics, please don't sweat the small stuff. Its as simple as that!!