A Chinese-language version of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses has become a best seller since it was published last week, helped apparently by opposition legislators' calls for the government to ban the translation.
The translation was published by the Ya-yen Publishing House (
KMT legislators held a press conference last Thursday to publicly urge the Government Information Office (GIO) to ban the translation, saying it might threaten national security by inciting Muslims to attack Taiwan.
Some messages left on local Web sites' chat rooms also criticized Ya-yen for making money by ignoring Taiwan's security.
However, the GIO said that it had not banned Rushdie's book when it was first published more than a decade ago and so it saw no reason to ban the new Chinese-language version.
The GIO also said that there was no regulation that would allow it to ban the book.
Publisher Joyce Yen (
Yen said the book was in the works for more than a year and its publication date, coming just two days after a bombing in Bali, Indonesia was a coincidence.
"Attacks incited by the book have not occurred for more than eight years. I decided to publish the book since I thought publishing it would not be dangerous any more," she said.
Yen also issued a press release yesterday reiterating that Rushdie's book is a work of fiction, whose theme was not related to Islam or any other religion.
"This is absolutely not the book for anyone who wants to understand Islam," the release stated.
The Satanic Verses was Rushdie's fourth novel. When it was published in 1988 it triggered death threats against Rushdie, including a fatwa decree by the late Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini, who accused the author of blasphemy. An aide to Khomeini put a US$1 million price tag on Rushdie's head.
In 1990 Rushdie issued an apology in which he reaffirmed his respect to Islam.
The translator of the Japanese version of the book was murdered in 1991 and the Italian translator was seriously injured that same year.
Iranian clerics increased the reward for Rushdie's death to US$2.8 million in 1999.
Publishing houses in Taiwan have long been leery of the book. The China Times Publishing Co dropped its plans to publish a translation about a decade ago after local Muslims advised against publishing.
Ya-yen Publishing House did not list the translator's name in the book.
Ping Lu (
Ping says there is no reason to look at the book differently from other bestsellers in Taiwan.
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