Rushdie advocates the application of higher criticism , pioneered during the late 19th century . Rushdie called for a reform in Islam in a guest opinion piece printed in '' The Washington Post '' and '' The Times '' in mid-August 2005 : Rushdie is a critic of cultural relativism . He favours calling things by their true names and constantly argues about what is wrong and what is right . In an interview with Point of Inquiry in 2006 he described his view as follows : Rushdie is an advocate of religious satire . He condemned the Charlie Hebdo shooting and defended comedic criticism of religions in a comment originally posted on English PEN where he called religions a medieval form of unreason . Rushdie called the attack a consequence of " religious totalitarianism " which according to him had caused " a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam " . : Rushdie is a self-professed humanist ; believing that reading and writing is a pathway for understanding human existence . When asked about reading and writing as a human right Rushdie states , “ the larger stories , the grand narratives that we live in , which are things like nation , and family , and clan , and so on . Those stories are considered to be treated reverentially . They need to be part of the way in which we conduct the discourse of our lives and to prevent people from doing something very damaging to human nature . ” Though Rushdie believes the freedoms of literature to be universal , the bulk of his fictions portrays the struggles of the marginally underrepresented . This can be seen in his portrayal of the role of females in his novel Shame . In this novel , Rushdie , “ suggests that it is women who suffer most from the injustices of the Pakistani social order . ” With this , we can see his support of feminism
Charlie Hebdo shooting
Charlie Hebdo shooting
Salman Rushdie