Salman Rushdie and the Satanic Verses Affair

When writer Salman Rushdie, winner of the Booker price, published his fourth book, The Satanic Verses, he could in no way foresee the consequences that part of his writing, apparently inspired by certain parts of the Quram and the prophet Mohammad, would have in the muslim community, and specifically in those muslims living in India and the Uk.

The book fostered protests and demonstrations all throughout the muslim world, and eventually ended in the proclamation of a Fatwa by Iran‘s ruler, the Ajatollah Khomeini in 1989, a death penalty to be executed by any muslim anywhere. This provoked a diplomatic incident between Iran and the UK, and implied the delay in the release of political prisoners by Hezbollah and others.

Rushdie had to hide under the protection of Scotland Yard and the UK’s military for over a decade. During this time, secondary deaths took place all over the world, such as the killing of the academic who translated the book into Japanese. When the Ajatollah died he took the Fatwa “with him” and it wasn’t until a reformist government was elected in Iran that such Fatwa was “overruled”

Follow the whole story from beginning to end in this fascinating documentary, “The Satanic Verses Affair”.