Novelist Salman Rushdie didn’t let a $1 million reward for his life stop him from speaking freely about politics, religion and the state of the world at Monday night’s Syracuse University lecture.

‘It was a lot more than $1 million and they don’t have that kind of money anyway,’ Rushdie said, joking about the bounty placed on his head by the Ayatollah Khomeini, the now deceased ruler of Iran.

Rushdie spoke to a sold-out crowd at SU’s Goldstein auditorium. All 1,500 of the free tickets to the lecture were distributed prior to Spring Break and another viewing room in the Goldstein Student Center was opened to accommodate additional spectators who were unable to obtain tickets.

Rushdie has written novels, short stories and essays, most deeply rooted to his Indian culture.

When “The Satanic Verses” was published in 1989, Khomeini issued a fatwa, or legal proclamation by a religious scholar, calling for Rushdie’s death, because the book appeared to criticize and belittle Islam. Rushdie contends the leaders of the movements against his book were ill-educated about the book’s content.

‘People simply jumped into action without having read it,’ he said. ‘It was the most frustrating thing because the book that exists was not the book people claimed it was.’

Years later some leaders of the movement against the book recounted their criticisms and admitted they finally read the book and that it ‘wasn’t that bad,’ Rushdie said.

‘People took one position publicly and had another position privately,’ he said.

In 1990 British filmmakers attempted to release the film “International Guerrillas,” based on Rushdie’s life and “The Satanic Verses.” Rushdie said the movie contained inaccurate portrayals of him as a drunken sadist who tortured those who opposed his views. British censors banned the film because it contained 27 defamations of Rushdie’s character. The film was eventually released after Rushdie wrote a letter allowing the film to be shown.

The fanfare that the film’s makers thought would accompany the movie failed, Rushdie said.

‘It opened in a grand 2000-seat theatre and nobody went to its premiere. Nobody wanted to see a bad movie. It was a wonderful vindication of free speech,’ he said.

Since Sept. 11, Rushdie said the state of free speech in the United States hasn’t been what it once was.

‘You can’t say anything today without offending someone,’ he said. ‘It’s almost as if the in thing to do is be offended by someone else’s speech.’

Rushdie said that contrary to not speaking controversial views at all, Americans should counter speech they don’t like with more speech.

‘The defense of free speech begins when someone says something you don’t like and that offends you,’ he said. ‘If you shut racists up it doesn’t mean racism stops. You need to allow them to speak in order to counter their absurd thoughts with well reasoned ones.’

Like speech, creativity among writers and authors has also diminished since Sept 11, Rushdie said. He said that U.S. fiction writers have had a ‘loss of nerve’ since the terrorist attacks.

‘I don’t mean to belittle America but similar things have happened elsewhere in the world and those people have had to grapple their way through the pain,’ he said.

Saira Clemence, a graduate French student, was impressed by Rushdie’s candidness about free speech.

‘I love what he said about the First Amendment and censorship and that someone with national recognition had the guts to say that,’ she said.

Earlier in the night, Rushdie spoke about the United States exercising its tremendous supremacy over the Third World and other countries.

‘There’s a problem with superpowers,’ he said. Third World countries see the United States as not only one of these superpowers but also as a ‘heel’ about to crush them.

He said the world is also being globalized at a rapid rate. This can help less fortunate countries while allowing slack for changes in cultural identity worldwide, he said.

‘The cultural language change is very superficial. Paris still looks like Paris. London still looks like London. I don’t see this homogenizing all over the world,’ he said.

Joe Rispoli, a graduate international relations student at the Maxwell School of Citizenship said he agreed with Rushdie’s views on the subject.

‘I thought his thoughts on globalization were great,’ Rispoli said. ‘It’s just a matter of making a progress of wealth in Third World countries to get them straightened out.’

Rushdie said when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center he was in Texas promoting one of his books. As a new New Yorker he felt like the terrorists had attacked his home.

‘I had the feeling that many New Yorkers who weren’t in New York at the time had a kind of guilt of absence,’ he said.

Domenica Newell-Amato, another graduate French student, said she was taken aback by Rushdie’s language.

‘I like what he said about the guilt of absence,’ she said. ‘That phrase and that language was so strong. It really helped me understand what he was feeling.’

Rushdie said the attacks hit him like little else.

‘I found myself unable to sit down,’ he said. ‘It seemed disrespectful to sit.’

Published on March 18, 2002 at 12:00 pm