Cologne, Germany - A maverick German writer has been denied permission to read aloud from Salman Rushdie's controversial novel "The Satanic Verses" inside a Cologne mosque. Günter Wallraff said he's not giving up on the idea.
Wallraff, famous for his undercover investigations, announced in July that he wanted to read the novel at a Turkish-speaking mosque in Cologne.
The request posed a dilemma for the Turkish-Islamic union DITIB, an Ankara-funded religious foundation: If the group members denied Wallraff's request, they would be seen as not being liberal, but granting permission would anger a large number of their members.
DITIB officials said they had discussed the proposed reading with Wallraff until two weeks ago, but negotiations failed after he refused to compromise.
"He lacks understanding for the feelings and needs of members of our Muslim community," said a spokesman, without specifying what DITIB had proposed to Wallraff.
Novel should be discussed among Muslims
Wallraff, a leftist journalist and author, has gone undercover numerous times to expose what he believes are injustices. For one book, "Lowest of the Low," he described the discrimination he faced while posing as a Turkish worker in Germany. The book was received positively by Germany's Turkish community.
"I have read the book aloud at home to Muslims and they actually laughed at parts that didn't mean anything to me. You can see that this book's place is in a Muslim context," Wallraff said.
Wallraff, 64, said he hoped such a reading would provoke a discussion on intolerance with German Muslims in the western German city and set an example for other Muslim communities around Germany.
Wallraff determined to appeal rejection
Rushdie's novel enraged many Muslims, who felt it was blasphemous in its portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed. Rushdie was put under police protection in 1989 after the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran called for him to be killed. The fatwa has not been lifted, but Iran eventually said that it did not need to be enforced.
Wallraff is a long-time Rushdie supporter and believes the novel is a literary masterpiece. Rushdie stayed in Wallraff's apartment during visits to Cologne in the 1990s.
Since proposing the reading, Wallraff said he's received anonymous death threats from extremist Muslims. But within the mainstream Turkish community, there's support for the reading, he said.
Wallraff said he would travel to Ankara this autumn and appeal to DITIB officials there to overrule the rejection.
"I don't give up that easily," he said.