Following an authors’ seminar in which she expressed admiration for the work of Salman Rushdie, a South African writer’s car was forced off the road by a gang of men who then held a knife to her throat before smashing her face with a brick, shattering her cheek bone. The men shouted that Zainub Priya Dala was “Rushdie’s bitch”, reports The Telegraph.
It goes without saying that violent tantrums and murderous sprees by Islamic extremists are growing in frequency, emboldened by the Internet and a globalised sense of grievance. It is increasingly hard to miss the chilling effects it is having on free speech and the increasing cultural and academic impoverishment of liberal societies.
This week a talk by Iranian-born ex-Muslim activist Maryam Namazie scheduled at Trinity College, Dublin, was cancelled after “conditions” were imposed on the speaker to address “security concerns”, which included the demand not to “antagonise Muslim students”. Namazie – who objects to the conflation of Muslims with political Islamism – notes that no such conditions have been imposted on Islamists speakers hosted at the university in the past. These speakers have defended the death penalty for apostates, like Ms Namazie, but perversely she finds herself the censored party.
We can expect more of this violence and intimidation. It is clearly very effective and it is equally clear that there is no political will to resist at an institutional level.
