A Brief History of Blasphemy:
Liberalism, Censorship and 'The Satanic Verses'

By RICHARD WEBSTER
The Orwell Press, 1990; Paperback £7.95; pp. 152

THIS STUDY OF THE RUSHDIE AFFAIR surveys the history of blasphemy and goes on to examine in detail the conflict which arose over The Satanic Verses. What is revealed is not a battle between authoritarianism and freedom but a clash between two forms of rigidity, two kinds of fundamentalism.

In the resulting Holy War neither side has understood the destructive role which has been played throughout history by obscene blasphemies directed against other people’s religious faith. At the same time liberal intellectuals have frequently failed to understand the history of Puritanism and the repressive origins of their own doctrines of freedom.
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‘Remarkable, bold and vigorously written…worthy of the age of Burke indeed…grave and sensible.’ BERNARD CRICK, Political Quarterly

A Brief History of Blasphemy: Liberalism, Censorship and 'The Satanic Verses' by Richard Webster Paperback, 1990, 152pp

£7.95

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