Prague won’t block ‘Satanic Verses’ translation
Saudi Arabia has complained over new Czech edition of Salman Rushdie novel
Prague/Riyadh, Oct 9 (ČTK) — Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek told the Czech News Agency today that the Czech Republic will not interfere in the publication of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses over which the Czech ambassador to Saudi Arabia has been summoned to the Saudi Foreign Ministry.
The information about the ambassador having been summoned was reported by the Reuters agency quoting the Saudi Arab press agency SPA today.
The conservative Muslim world considers the book an offence to Islam because Muslims relate the story of the fictitious prophet to the founder of Islam, Muhammad.
The SPA wrote that Saudi Arabia conveyed to the ambassador condemnation of and criticism for the book translation. Riyadh allegedly asked the ambassador to try to stop the book publication.
The Czech Embassy in Riyadh has refused to comment on the case.
“We only said we have our own legislation that all must respect,” Zaorálek told ČTK.
“We do not have any reason for any interference in the matter because we have freedom of press and expression and we cannot change anything about this,” Zaorálek said.
The book was issued by the Czech publisher Paseka this year. The Satanic Verses were published in Czech in 1994 already. Experts said the anonymous translation was not of a good quality. The new translation is signed by Jan O.Tichý, but it is an assumed name.
The late Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini pronounced a fatwa, or religious edict, one year after the book was first published in Britain in 1988, calling on Muslims to kill Rushdie. It has not been lifted as yet. Rushdie lived in hiding for a long time over it.
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