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The Sickly Flavor of the Contagion Beneath Our Feet
Writing about the responses from world leaders to his stabbing in 2022, Salman Rushdie points out that while some expressed their condolences and support others rejoiced in the fact that an assailant attacked him on stage at Chautauqua. Referencing the fatwa that Ruhollah Khomeini issued on him following the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1989, Rushdie points out that once “you are turned into an object of hate, there will be people who hate you.” When you become an “object of hate,” not even an “enemy” but a mere “object,” devoid of any semblance of humanity in the eyes of those who hate you, it becomes easy for others to “hate you.” This was Rushdie’s attacker who only read a couple of pages of Rushdie’s work and watched a YouTube video before attacking him.
Hate spreads, no matter how much we try to curtail it or squash it. Once one perpetrator of hate exits the stage, another pops up, and another. It’s a multi-headed hydra that replicates its heads when some get lopped off. It’s also a root system, an ever-extending root system that reaches out underneath the surface to spread its message across the land. When the trunk and branches fall, the roots remain, communicating with other trees and plants through mycorrhizal networks. Thus, the idea remains, multiplying and traversing the globe. So, even though Khomeini deemed Rushdie “an object of hate”…
