The Satanic Verses controversy

Satanic Verses controversy
Salman Rushdie, the author of the novel The Satanic Verses
Salman Rushdie, the author of the novel The Satanic Verses
Ayatollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader of Iran
Ayatollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader of Iran who issued the fatwa

The Satanic Verses controversy, also known as the Rushdie Affair, was the heated and frequently violent reaction of Muslims to the publication of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses, which was first published in the United Kingdom in 1988. Many Muslims accused Rushdie of blasphemy or unbelief and in 1989 the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie. Numerous killings, attempted killings, and bombings resulted from Muslim anger over the novel.[1]

The Iranian government backed the fatwa against Rushdie until 1998, when the succeeding government of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said it no longer supported the killing of Rushdie.[2] However, the fatwa remains in place.

The issue was said to have divided "Muslim from Westerners along the fault line of culture,"[3][4] and to have pitted a core Western value of freedom of expression—that no one "should be killed, or face a serious threat of being killed, for what they say or write"[5]—against the view of many Muslims—that no one should be free to "insult and malign Muslims" by disparaging the "honour of the Prophet" Muhammad.[6] English writer Hanif Kureishi called the fatwa "one of the most significant events in postwar literary history."[7]

Background

Even before the publication of The Satanic Verses, the books of Salman Rushdie stoked controversy. Rushdie himself saw his role as a writer "as including the function of antagonist to the state".[8] His second book Midnight's Children angered Indira Gandhi because it seemed to suggest "that Mrs. Gandhi was responsible for the death of her husband through neglect".[9] His 1983 roman à clef Shame "took an aim on Pakistan, its political characters, its culture and its religion... [It covered] a central episode in Pakistan's internal life, which portrays as a family squabble between Iskander Harappa (Zulfikar Ali Bhutto) and his successor and executioner Raza Hyder (Zia ul-Haq)... 'The Virgin Ironpants'... has been identified as Benazir Bhutto, a Prime Minister of Pakistan".[9]

Positions Rushdie took as a committed leftist prior to the publishing of his book were the source of some controversy. He defended many of those who would later attack him during the controversy. Rushdie forcefully denounced the Shah's government and supported the Islamic Revolution of Iran, at least in its early stages. He condemned the US bombing raid on Tripoli in 1986 but found himself threatened by Libya's leader Muammar al-Gaddafi three years later.[10] He wrote a book bitterly critical of US foreign policy in general and its war in Nicaragua in particular, for example calling the United States government, "the bandit posing as sheriff".[11] After the Ayatollah's fatwa however, he was accused by Iranian government of being "an inferior CIA agent".[12] A few years earlier, an official jury appointed by a ministry of the Iranian Islamic government had bestowed an award on the Persian translation of Rushdie's book Shame, which up until then was the only time a government had awarded Rushdie's work a prize.

Controversial elements of The Satanic Verses

Further information: The Satanic Verses

"[V]ehement protest against Rushdie's book" began with the title itself. The title refers to a legend of the Prophet Mohammad, when a few verses were supposedly spoken by him as part of the Qur'an, and then withdrawn on the grounds that the devil had sent them to deceive Mohammad into thinking they came from God. These "Satanic Verses" are found in verses eighteen to twenty-two in suraht An-Najim of the Qur'an,[13] and by accounts from Tabari, but is seldom mentioned in the first biography of Mohammad by Ibn Ishaq. The verses also appear in other accounts of the prophet's life. They permitted prayer to three pre-Islamic Meccan goddesses: Al-lāt, Uzza, and Manāt—a violation of monotheism.[14] The utterance and withdrawal of the so-called Satanic Verses forms an important sub-plot in the novel, which recounts several episodes in the life of Muhammad. The phrase Arab historians and later Muslims used to describe the incident of the withdrawn verses was not "Satanic verses", but the gharaniq verses; the phrase 'Satanic verses' was unknown to Muslims, and was coined by Western academics specialising in the study of Middle Eastern culture. The story itself is not found in the six Sahih of the sunni, the shiite sources or in the authentic books, so much so that Muraghi, in his commentary, says: "These traditions are undoubtedly a fabrication of the heretics and foreign hands, and have not been found in any of the authentic books"...[15][16] According to Daniel Pipes,[17] when attention was drawn to a book with this title, "Muslims found [it] incredibly sacrilegious", and took it to imply that the book's author claimed that verses of the Qur'an were "the work of the Devil".[14]

According to Anthony McRoy, other controversial elements included the use of the name Mahound, said to be a derogatory term for Muhammad used by the English during the Crusades; the use of the term Jahilia, denoting the 'time of ignorance' before Islam, for the holy city of Mecca; the use of the name of the Angel Gibreel (Gabriel) for a film star, of the name of Saladin, the great Muslim hero of the Crusades, for a devil, and the name of Ayesha the wife of Muhammad for a fanatical Indian girl who leads her village on a fatal pilgrimage. Moreover, the brothel of the city of Jahilia was staffed by prostitutes with the same names as Muhammad's wives,[18] who are viewed by Muslims as 'the Mothers of all Believers'.[19]

Other issues many Muslims have found offensive include Abraham being called a "bastard" for casting Hagar and Ishmael in the desert;[20] and a character named Salman the Persian who serves as one of the Prophet's scribes, an apparent reference to the story, controversial among Muslims, of a Meccan convert by the name of Ibn Abi Sarh, who left Islam after the Prophet failed to notice small changes he had made in the dictation of the Qur'an.[21]

Daniel Pipes identified other more general issues in the book likely to have angered pious Muslims: A complaint in the book by one of Mahound's companions: "rules about every damn thing, if a man farts let him turn his face to the wind, a rule about which hand to use for the purpose of cleaning one's behind ...", which was said to mix up "Islamic law with its opposite and with the author's whimsy";[18] the prophet of Rushdie's novel, as he lies dying, being visited in a dream by the Goddess Allat, on the grounds that this suggested either that she exists or that the prophet thought she did; the angel Gibreel's vision of the Supreme Being in another dream as "not abstract in the least. He saw, sitting on the bed, a man of about the same age as himself", balding, wearing glasses and "seeming to suffer from dandruff".[22] A complaint by one of the characters about communal violence in India: "Fact is, religious faith, which encodes the highest aspirations of human race, is now, in our country, the servant of lowest instincts, and God is the creature of evil".[22]

The Guardian newspaper published on 14 September 2012 a series of recollections of various British people involved in the controversy. Lisa Appagnesi, ex-president of English PEN, observed "Intransigence is never so great as when it feels it has a god on its side." One of the lawyers involved, Geoffrey Robertson QC, rehearsed the arguments and replies made when 13 Muslim barristers had lodged a formal indictment against Rushdie for the crime of blasphemous libel: it was said that God was described in the book as "the Destroyer of Man", yet he is described as such in the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation, especially of men who are unbelievers or enemies of the Jews; that the book contained criticisms of the prophet Abraham, yet the Islamic, Christian and Jewish traditions themselves see Abraham as not without fault and deserving of criticism; that Rushdie referred to Mohammed as "Mahound", a conjurer, a magician and a false prophet, yet these remarks are made by a drunken apostate, a character with whom neither reader nor author has any sympathy; that the book insults the wives of the Prophet by having whores use their names, yet the wives are explicitly said to be chaste and the adoption of their names by whores is to symbolise the corruption of the city then being described (perhaps symbolising Mecca in its pre-Islamic state); that the book vilified the companions of the Prophet, calling them "bums from Persia" and "clowns", yet the character saying this is a hack poet hired to write propaganda against the Prophet and does not reflect the author's beliefs; that the book criticised Islam for having too many rules and seeking to control every aspect of life, yet while characters in the book do make such remarks these cannot constitute blasphemy since they do not vilify God or the Prophet. This case led to the abolition of the crime of blasphemy in English law.[23]

Early reaction

Before the publication of The Satanic Verses, the publisher received "warnings from the publisher's editorial consultant" that the book might be controversial.[9] Later, Rushdie would reflect upon the time that the book was about to be published. Speaking to an interviewer, he said, "I expected a few mullahs would be offended, call me names, and then I could defend myself in public... I honestly never expected anything like this".[9]

The Satanic Verses was published by Viking Penguin on 26 September 1988.[9] Upon its publication the book garnered considerable critical acclaim in the United Kingdom. On 8 November 1988, the work received the Whitbread Award for novel of the year,[9] worth £20,000.[24] According to one observer, "almost all the British book reviewers" were unaware of the book's connection to Islam because Rushdie has used the name Mahound instead of Muhammad for his chapter on Islam.[18]

Muslim response and book bannings

In Islamic communities, the novel became instantly controversial, because of what some Muslims considered blasphemous references. Rushdie was accused of misusing freedom of speech.[25] By October 1988, letters and phone calls arrived at Viking Penguin from Muslims, angry with the book and demanding that it be withdrawn.[9] Before the end of the month, the import of the book was banned in India, although possession of the book is not a criminal offence.[9][26]

In November 1988, it was also banned in Bangladesh, Sudan, and South Africa.[9]

In Britain on 2 December 1988, 7,000 Muslims in the town of Bolton staged the first ever demonstration against the Satanic Verses. After the Friday prayers, a certain section of the congregation marched from the Zakariyya Jame Masjid to the town centre and then burned the book. The organisers claimed "It was a peaceful protest, and we burned the book to try and attract public attention".[27]

By December 1988, it was also banned in Sri Lanka.[9] March 1989 saw it banned in Kenya, Thailand, Tanzania, Indonesia, and Singapore.[9]

The City of Bradford gained international attention in January 1989 when some of its members organised a public book-burning of The Satanic Verses, evoking as the journalist Robert Winder recalled "images of medieval (not to mention Nazi) intolerance".[28]

The last nation to ban the book was Venezuela, in June 1989.[9]

Attacks

In the United States, the FBI was notified of 78 threats to bookstores in early March 1989, thought to be a small proportion of the total number of threats. B. Dalton bookstore chain received 30 threats in less than three hours. Bombings of book stores included two in Berkeley, California. In New York, the office of a community newspaper, The Riverdale Press, was all but destroyed by firebombs following the publication of an editorial defending the right to read the novel and criticising the bookstores that pulled it from their shelves.[29] But the United Kingdom was the country where violence against bookstores occurred most often and persisted the longest. Two large bookstores in Charing Cross Road, London, (Collets and Dillons) were bombed on 9 April. In May, explosions went off in the town of High Wycombe and again in London, on Kings Road. Other bombings included one at a large London department store (Liberty's), in connection with the Penguin Bookshop inside the store, and at the Penguin store in York. Unexploded devices were found at Penguin stores in Guildford, Nottingham, and Peterborough.

In the United States, it was unavailable in about one-third of bookstores. In many others that carried the book, it was kept under the counter.[30]

Fatwa by Ayatollah Khomeini

While there was already a considerable amount of protest by Muslims in the first months after the book's publishing, the fatwa issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, created a major international incident.

On 14 February 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini, a Shi'a Muslim leader, issued a fatwa calling for the death of Rushdie and his publishers. Khomeini is thought to have issued the fatwa after hearing about a 10,000-strong protest against Rushdie and his book in Islamabad, Pakistan, where six protesters were killed in an attack on the American Cultural Center.[31]

Broadcast on Iranian radio, the judgement read:

"We are from Allah and to Allah we shall return. I am informing all brave Muslims of the world that the author of The Satanic Verses, a text written, edited, and published against Islam, the Prophet of Islam, and the Qur'an, along with all the editors and publishers aware of its contents, are condemned to death. I call on all valiant Muslims wherever they may be in the world to kill them without delay, so that no one will dare insult the sacred beliefs of Muslims henceforth. And whoever is killed in this cause will be a martyr, Allah Willing. Meanwhile if someone has access to the author of the book but is incapable of carrying out the execution, he should inform the people so that [Rushdie] is punished for his actions. Rouhollah al-Mousavi al-Khomeini."[32]

Although Khomeini did not give the legal reasoning for his judgement, it is thought to be based on the ninth chapter of the Qur'an, called At-Tawba, verse 61: "Some of them hurt the prophet by saying, 'He is all ears!' Say, 'It is better for you that he listens to you. He believes in God, and trusts the believers. He is a mercy for those among you who believe.' Those who hurt God's messenger have incurred a painful retribution".[33]

Several days after the fatwa was declared Iranian officials offered a bounty for the killing of Rushdie, who was thus forced to live under police protection for the next nine years. On 7 March 1989, the United Kingdom and Iran broke diplomatic relations over the Rushdie controversy.[34]

Rushdie's apology and reaction

Rushdie's apology

Taking a cue from Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamene'i (a former "favourite pupil"[35] and long-time lieutenant of Khomeini), who suggested that if Rushdie "apologises and disowns the book, people may forgive him",[36] Rushdie issued "a carefully worded statement"[36] regretting,

profoundly the distress the publication has occasioned to the sincere followers of Islam. Living as we do in a world of many faiths, this experience has served to remind us that we must all be conscious of the sensibilities of others.[36]

This "was relayed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran via official channels before being released to the press".[36]

Rejection of Rushdie's apology

On 19 February Khomeini's office replied

The imperialist foreign media falsely alleged that the officials of the Islamic Republic have said the sentence of death on the author of The Satanic Verses will be retracted if he repents. Imam Khomeini has said:
This is denied 100%. Even if Salman Rushdie repents and become the most pious man of all time, it is incumbent on every Muslim to employ everything he has got, his life and wealth, to send him to Hell.

The Imam added:

If a non-Muslim becomes aware of Rushdie's whereabouts and has the ability to execute him quicker than Muslims, it is incumbent on Muslims to pay a reward or a fee in return for this action.[37]

Author and scholar on Islam Anthony McRoy said that Khomeini's interpretation of the Islamic law that led him to refuse the apology follows the same line of reasoning as the eighth- and ninth-century Muslim jurist Muhammad ibn Idrīs al-Shafiʿī. In Al-Risala (Maliki Manual) 37.19 Crimes Against Islam, Shafi'i ruled that an "apostate is also killed unless he repents... Whoever abuses the Messenger of God ... is to be executed, and his repentance is not accepted".[19]

Support for Khomeini's fatwa

In Britain, the Union of Islamic Students' Associations in Europe issued a statement offering its services to Khomeini. Despite incitement to murder being illegal in the United Kingdom,[38] one London property developer told reporters, "If I see him, I will kill him straight away. Take my name and address. One day I will kill him".[39]

Other leaders, while supporting the fatwa, claimed that British Muslims were not allowed to carry out the fatwa themselves. Prominent amongst these were the Muslim Parliament and its leader Kalim Siddiqui, and after his death in 1996, his successor, Ghayasuddin Siddiqui. His support for the fatwa continued, even after the Iranian leadership said it would not pursue the fatwa,[40] and re-iterated his support in 2000.[41]

Meanwhile, in America, the director of the Near East Studies Center at UCLA, George Sabbagh, told an interviewer that Khomeini was "completely within his rights" to call for Rushdie's death.[42]

In May 1989 in Beirut, Lebanon, British citizen Jackie Mann was abducted "in response to Iran's fatwa against Salman Rushdie for the publication of book the Satanic Verses and more specifically, for his refuge and protection in the United Kingdom".[43] He joined several Westerners held hostage there. Two months earlier a photograph of three teachers held hostage was released by Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine with the message that it "would take revenge against" all institutions and organisations that insulted in one way or another "members of the Prophet Mohammed's family".[44] The Iranian supported Shia political party and militia Hezbollah is considered to be the actual perpetrator of the kidnappings.

Anthony McRoy claimed that "In Islamic society a blasphemer is held in the same hostile contempt as a pedophile in the West. Just as few if any people in the West mourn the murder of a child molester, few Muslims mourn the killing of a blasphemer".[19]

Criticism of Khomeini's fatwa

Khomeini's fatwa was condemned across the Western world by governments on the grounds that it violated the universal human rights of free speech, freedom of religion, and that Khomeini had no right to condemn to death a citizen of another country living in that country.

On Islamic grounds

In addition to criticism of the death sentence on the basis of humans rights, the sentence was also criticised on Islamic grounds. According to Bernard Lewis, a death warrant without trial, defence and other legal aspects of sharia violates Islamic jurisprudence. In Islamic fiqh, apostasy by a mentally sound adult male is indeed a capital crime. However, fiqh also:

... lays down procedures according to which a person accused of an offense is to be brought to trial, confronted with his accuser, and given the opportunity to defend himself. A judge will then give a verdict and if he finds the accused guilty, pronounce sentence... Even the most rigorous and extreme of the classical jurist only require a Muslim to kill anyone who insults the Prophet in his hearing and in his presence. They say nothing about a hired killing for a reported insult in a distant country.[45]

Other Islamic scholars outside Iran took issue with the fact that the sentence was not passed by an Islamic court,[39][46] or that it did not limit its "jurisdiction only [to] countries under Islamic law".[33] Muhammad Hussan ad-Din, a theologian at Al-Azhar University, argued "Blood must not be shed except after a trial [when the accused has been] given a chance to defend himself and repent".[39] Abdallah al-Mushidd, head of Azhar's Fatwā Council stated "We must try the author in a legal fashion as Islam does not accept killing as a legal instrument".[46]

The Islamic Jurisprudence Academy in Mecca urged that Rushdie be tried and, if found guilty, be given a chance to repent, (p. 93) and Ayatollah Mehdi Rohani, head of the Shi'i community in Europe and a cousin of Khomeini, criticised Khomeini for 'respect[ing] neither international law nor that of Islam.'[47]

There was also criticism of the fatwa issued against Rushdie's publishers. According to Daniel Pipes: "The Sharia clearly establishes that disseminating false information is not the same as expressing it. "Transmitting blasphemy is not blasphemy" (naql al-kufr laysa kufr). In addition, the publishers were not Muslim and so could not be "sentenced under the Islamic laws of apostasy". If there was another legal justification for sentencing them to death, "Khomeini failed to provide" it.[48]

The Islamic Republic's response to calls for a trial was to denounce its Islamic proponents as "deceitful". President Khomeini accused them of attempting to use religious law as "a flag under which they can crush revolutionary Islam".[49]

Questions of political motivation

Some speculate that the fatwa (or at least the reaffirmation of the death threat four days later) was issued with motives other than a sense of duty to protect Islam by punishing blasphemy/apostasy. Namely:

Questions of personal motivation

Despite claims by Islamic Republic officials that "Rushdie's book did not insult Iran or Iranian leaders" and so they had no selfish personal motivation to attack the book, the book does include an eleven-page sketch of Khomeini's stay in Paris that could well be considered an insult to him. It describes him as having "grown monstrous, lying in the palace forecourt with his mouth yawning open at the gates; as the people march through the gates he swallows them whole". In the words of one observer, "If this is not an insult, Khomeini was far more tolerant than one might suppose",[57] John Crowley has noted that the section of the book depicting the Khomeini-like character was selected to be read publicly by Rushdie in the promotional events leading up to and following the book's release.[58] In Crowley's opinion, the fatwa was most likely declared because of this section of the novel and its public exposure, rather than the overall parodic treatment of Islam.[58]

Attempts to revoke the fatwa

On 24 September 1998, as a precondition to the restoration of diplomatic relations with Britain, the Iranian government, then headed by moderate Muhammad Khatami, gave a public commitment that it would "neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie".[59][60] However, some in Iran have continued to reaffirm the death sentence.[61] In early 2005, Khomeini's fatwa was reaffirmed by Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.[62] Additionally, the Revolutionary Guards have declared that the death sentence on him is still valid.[63] Iran has rejected requests to withdraw the fatwa on the basis that only the person who issued it may withdraw it,[62] with Ruhollah Khomeini having died in 1989.

On 14 February 2006, the Iranian state news agency reported that the fatwa will remain in place permanently.[64]

Salman Rushdie reported that he still receives a "sort of Valentine's card" from Iran each year on 14 February letting him know the country has not forgotten the vow to kill him. He was also quoted saying, "It's reached the point where it's a piece of rhetoric rather than a real threat".[65]

Social and political fallout

One of the immediate consequences of the fatwa was a worsening of Islamic-Western relations.

Heightened tension

Rushdie lamented that the controversy fed the Western stereotype of "the backward, cruel, rigid Muslim, burning books and threatening to kill the blasphemer",[66] while another British writer compared the Ayatollah Khomeini "with a familiar ghost from the past – one of those villainous Muslim clerics, a Faqir of Ipi or a mad Mullah, who used to be portrayed, larger than life, in popular histories of the British Empire".[67] Media expressions of this included a banner headline in the popular British newspaper the Daily Mirror referring to Khomeini as "that Mad Mullah".[68]

The Independent newspaper worried that Muslim book burning demonstrations were "following the example of the Inquisition and Hitler's National Socialists",[69] and that if Rushdie was killed, "it would be the first burning of a heretic in Europe in two centuries".[70] Peregrine Worsthorne of the Sunday Telegraph feared that with Europe's growing Muslim population, "Islamic fundamentalism is rapidly growing into a much bigger threat of violence and intolerance than anything emanating from, say, the fascist National Front; and a threat, moreover, infinitely more difficult to contain since it is virtually impossible to monitor, let alone stamp out ...".[71]

On the Muslim side, the Iranian government saw the book as part of a British conspiracy against Islam. It broke diplomatic relations with UK on 7 March 1989 giving the explanation that "in the past two centuries Britain has been in the frontline of plots and treachery against Islam and Muslims", It accused the British of sponsoring Rushdie's book to use it as a political and cultural tact on earlier military plots that no longer worked.[72] It also saw itself as the victor of the controversy, with the European Community countries capitulating under Iranian pressure. "When Europeans saw that their economic interests in Muslim countries could be damaged, they began to correct their position on the issue of the insulting book. Every official started to condemn the book in one way or another. When they realised that Iran's reaction, its breaking of diplomatic relations with London, could also include them, they quickly sent back their ambassadors to Tehran to prevent further Iranian reaction".[73]

Book sales

Persian Samizdat edition of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses c.2000

Although British bookseller W.H. Smith sold "a mere hundred copies a week of the book in mid-January 1989", it "flew off the shelves" following the fatwa. In America it sold an "unprecedented" five times more copies than the number two book, Star by Danielle Steel, selling more than 750,000 copies of the book by May 1989. B. Dalton, a bookstore chain that decided not to stock the book for security reasons, changed its mind when it found the book "was selling so fast that even as we tried to stop it, it was flying off the shelves".[74][75] Rushdie earned about $2 million within the first year of the book's publication,[76] and the book is Viking's all-time best seller.[77]

Rushdie

The author of the book himself was not killed or injured as many militants wished, but visibly frustrated by a life locked in 24-hour armed guard – alternately defiant against his would-be killers and attempting overtures of reconciliation against the death threat. A week after the death threat, and after his unsuccessful apology to the Iranian government, Rushdie described succumbing to "a curious lethargy, the soporific torpor that overcomes ... while under attack";[78] then, a couple of weeks after that, wrote a poem vowing "not to shut up" but "to sing on, in spite of attacks".[79] But in June, following the death of Khomeini, he asked his supporters "to tone down their criticism of Iran".

His wife, Marianne Wiggins, reported that in the first few months following the fatwa the couple moved 56 times, once every three days. In late July Rushdie separated from Wiggins, "the tension of being at the center of an international controversy, and the irritations of spending all hours of the day together in seclusion", being too much for their "shaky" relationship.[80]

Late the next year Rushdie declared, "I want to reclaim my life", and in December signed a declaration "affirming his Islamic faith and calling for Viking-Penguin, the publisher of The Satanic Verses, neither to issue the book in paperback nor to allow it to be translated".[81] This also failed to move supporters of the fatwa and by mid-2005 Rushdie was condemning Islamic fundamentalism as a

... project of tyranny and unreason which wishes to freeze a certain view of Islamic culture in time and silence the progressive voices in the Muslim world calling for a free and prosperous future. ... along comes 9/11, and now many people say that, in hindsight, the fatwa was the prologue and this is the main event.[82]

A memoir of his years of hiding, entitled Joseph Anton, was published on 18 September 2012. Joseph Anton was Rushdie's secret alias.[83]

Explanation of different reactions

Muslim

The passionate international rage of Muslims towards the book surprised many Western readers because the book was written in English, not Arabic, Urdu, Persian or other languages for which the majority of mother tongue speakers are Muslims; it was never published or even sold in the countries where most Muslims lived; and was a work of fiction—a demanding, densely written novel unlikely to appeal to the average reader.[84]

Some of the explanations for the unprecedented rage unleashed against the book were that:

Whoever is familiar with the history of colonialism and the Islamic world knows that whenever they wanted to get a foothold in a place, the first thing they did in order to clear their paths – whether overtly or covertly – was to undermine the people's genuine Islamic morals.[99]
and claimed an unnamed British foreign secretary once told the British parliament, "So long as the Qur'an is revered by Muslims, we will not be able to consolidate a foothold among the Muslims".[99]

Western mainstream

Despite passionate intensity of Muslim feeling on the issue no Western government banned The Satanic Verses. This is primarily because most Western governments explicitly or implicitly allow for freedom of expression, which includes forbidding censorship in the vast majority of cases. Western attitudes regarding freedom of expression differ from those in the Arab world because:

The last point also explains why one of the few groups to speak out in Muslim countries against Khomeini and for Rushdie's right to publish his book were other writers.[106] Nobel prize winners Wole Soyinka of Nigeria and Naguib Mahfouz of Egypt, both attacked Khomeini, and both received death threats as a result, with Mahfouz later getting stabbed in the back by a Muslim fundamentalist.[107][108]

Some Western politicians and writers did criticise Rushdie. Former United States president Jimmy Carter, while condemning the threats and fatwa against Rushdie, stated, "we have tended to promote him and his book with little acknowledgment that it is a direct insult to those millions of Moslems whose sacred beliefs have been violated and are suffering in restrained silence the added embarrassment of the Ayatollah's irresponsibility". He also held that Rushdie must have been aware of the response his book would evoke: "The author, a well-versed analyst of Moslem beliefs, must have anticipated a horrified reaction throughout the Islamic world".[109] He saw a need to be "sensitive to the concern and anger" of Muslims and thought severing diplomatic relations with Iran would be an "overreaction".[110]

Among authors, Roald Dahl was scathing and called Rushdie's book sensationalist and Rushdie "a dangerous opportunist".[111] John le Carré thought the death sentence to be outrageous, but he also criticised Rushdie's action: "I don't think it is given to any of us to be impertinent to great religions with impunity",[111] although he later expressed regret over his dispute with Rushdie.[112] Rushdie however was supported by major bodies in the literary world such as PEN and Association of American Publishers, and prominent figures such as Gunter Grass, Martin Amis, Saul Bellow, Nadine Gordimer and Derek Walcott.[113] Another major supporter of Rushdie, Christopher Hitchens, said that the fatwa persuaded him that Islamic fundamentalism was an urgent menace, and later wrote God Is Not Great, a polemic against religion.[114] The affair however led to greater caution and some degree of self-censorship when dealing with Islamic issues in the literary and other creative arts.[108]

Western religious figures

Most religious figures in the United States and United Kingdom shared the aversion to blasphemy of pious Muslims (if not as intensely) and did not defend Rushdie like their secular compatriots. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, demanded that the government expand the Blasphemy Act to cover other religions, including Islam.[115]

Michael Walzer wrote that the response revealed an evolution of the meaning of blasphemy; it moved away from a crime against God and toward something more temporal.

Today we are concerned for our pain and sometimes, for other people's. Blasphemy has become an offence against the faithful – in much the same way as pornography is an offence against the innocent and the virtuous. Given this meaning, blasphemy is an ecumenical crime and so it is not surprising ... that Christians and Jews should join Muslims in calling Salman Rushdie's [book] a blasphemous book.[116]

Some rabbis, such as Immanuel Jakobovits, chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, opposed the book's publishing.[117]

Reception timeline

1988

1989

I shall not cease from mental strife
nor shall my pen sleep in my hand
till Rushdie has a right to life
and books aren't burned or banned

1990

1991

1993–1994

1995–1996

1997–1998

"The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has no intention, nor is it going to take any action whatsoever, to threaten the life of the author of 'The Satanic Verses' or anybody associated with his work, nor will it encourage or assist anybody to do so".[2]

1999

2000–2004

2005–2007

For more details on this topic, see Knighthood of Salman Rushdie.

2008–2012

2016

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Jessica Jacobson. Islam in transition: religion and identity among British Pakistani youth. 1998, page 34
  2. 1 2 Crossette, Barbara (25 September 1998). "Iran Drops Rushdie Death Threat, And Britain Renews Teheran Ties". The New York Times.
  3. 1 2 Pipes, 1990, p.133
  4. ↑ From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and Its Aftermath By Kenan Malik, introduction, no page numbers
  5. ↑ Timothy Garton Ash (22 June 2007). "No ifs and no buts". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  6. ↑ "Pakistan blasts Rushdie honour". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  7. ↑ "Looking back at Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses". The Guardian (London). 14 September 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  8. ↑ Rushdie, Salman, Jaguar Smile; New York: Viking, 1987, p.50
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Ian Richard Netton (1996). Text and Trauma: An East-West Primer. Richmond, UK: Routledge Curzon. ISBN 0-7007-0325-X.
  10. ↑ Pipes, 1990, p.236
  11. ↑ Rushdie, Jaguar Smile, Viking, 1987
  12. ↑ "The book's author is in England but the real supporter is the United States" – Interior Minister Mohtashemi (IRNA 17 February 1989) "An Iranian government statement called Rushdie "an inferior CIA agent" and referred to the book as a "provocative American deed"". (IRNA 14 February 1989) (Pipes, 1990, p.129)
  13. ↑ http://quran.com/53/18-22
  14. 1 2 John D. Erickson (1998). Islam and Postcolonial Narrative. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-511-00769-8.
  15. ↑ Al Muraghi. Tafsir Muraghi, vol. 17, pg. 130, under the abovementioned verse.
  16. ↑ Ayatullah al-'Uzma al-Hajj ash-Shaykh Nasir Makarim Shirazi. "What is the Myth of Gharaniq or 'The Satanic Verses'?". The Islamic Education Board of the World Federation of Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri Muslim Communities.
  17. ↑ Daniel Pipes
  18. 1 2 3 Pipes, 1990, p. 65
  19. 1 2 3 Anthony McRoy (1 July 2007). "Why Muslims feel angry about the Rushdie knighthood". Religious Intelligence. Archived from the original on 15 February 2009.
  20. ↑ Michael M. J. Fischer; Mehdi Abedi (May 1990). "Bombay Talkies, the Word and the World: Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses". Cultural Anthropology 5 (2): 124–132.
  21. ↑ Ibn Abi Sarh
  22. 1 2 Pipes, 1990, p. 67
  23. ↑ "Salman Rushdie (Author),Fiction (Books genre),Publishing (Books),Books,Culture,Blake Morrison,Hari Kunzru (author),Ian McEwan (Author),Peter Carey (Author),Hanif Kureishi (Author),Fay Weldon (Author),Religion (Books genre),Religion (News),Michael Holroyd". The Guardian (London). 14 September 2012.
  24. ↑ Pipes, 1990, p.42
  25. ↑ Abdolkarim Soroush's speech in the USA, November 2002, Farsi Text, it has been published in Aftab monthly magazine in April 2003
  26. ↑ "Reading 'Satanic Verses' legal". The Times of India. 25 January 2012.
  27. ↑ Robin Lustig, Martin Bailey, Simon de Bruxelles and Ian Mather The Guardian newspapers story of events around the Book
  28. ↑ Winder, Robert. Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain. Abacus, London: 2013: p. 414
  29. ↑ Pitt, David E. (1 March 1989). "Office of Weekly Paper in Riverdale Is Firebombed". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  30. ↑ Pipes, 1990, p.169-171
  31. ↑ The Rushdie File, p. 67
  32. ↑ "Ayatollah sentences author to death". BBC. 14 February 1989. Retrieved 22 January 2007.
  33. 1 2 3 Joseph Bernard Tamney (2002). The Resilience of Conservative Religion: The Case of Popular, Conservative Protestant Congregations. Cambridge, UK: The Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.
  34. ↑ Letter from the Private Secretary, 16 March 1989: quoted in The Rushdie File, p. 120
  35. ↑ "Biography of H. E. Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei". Khamenei.de. 4 June 1989. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  36. 1 2 3 4 from Moin, Khomeini, (2001), p.284, (Issued 18 February, Obtained by Baqer Moin from the Archbishop of Canterbury's aides.)]
  37. ↑ Moin, Khomeini, (2001), p.284
  38. ↑ Pipes, 1990, p.182-3
  39. 1 2 3 Newsweek, 27 February 1989
  40. ↑ "BBC, 23 September 1998". BBC News. 23 September 1998. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  41. ↑ The Independent, 13 February 2000
  42. ↑ TIME, 27 February 1989, p.159
  43. ↑ Ranstorp, Hizb'allah in Lebanon, (1997), p.103
  44. ↑ "Iran: West to Blame Islam for Forthcoming Terrorism", Philadelphia Inquirer, 24 February 1989, p.5A
  45. ↑ Bernard Lewis commenting on Rushdie fatwa in The Crisis of Islam : Holy War and Unholy Terror, 2003 by Bernard Lewis, p.141-2
  46. 1 2 "Ab'ad Harb al-Kitab" Al Majalla, 1 March 1989, quoted in Pipes, 1990, p.93
  47. ↑ Le Nouvel Observateur 23 February 1989
  48. ↑ Pipes, 1990, p.91
  49. ↑ Radio Tehran, 16 March 1989, quoted in Pipes, 1990, p.135
  50. ↑ Khomeini, Islam and Revolution (1980), p.127
  51. ↑ Moin, Baqer, Khomeini, (2001), p.267,
  52. ↑ The Gulf War : Its Origins, History and Consequences by John Bulloch and Harvey Morris, 1989, (p.xvi)]
  53. ↑ People of the Century, by CBS News, p.220.
  54. ↑ Wright, Robin In the Name of God, (c1989), p.201
  55. 1 2 Pipes, 1990, 133–4
  56. ↑ Kepel, Jihad, (2001), p.135)
  57. ↑ Pipes, 1990, p.207
  58. 1 2 Crowley, John. "Rushdie and Me". Livejournal. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
  59. 1 2 Anthony Loyd (8 June 2005). "Tomb of the unknown assassin reveals mission to kill Rushdie". The Times (London).
  60. ↑ "26 December 1990: Iranian leader upholds Rushdie fatwa". BBC News: On This Day. 26 December 1990. Retrieved 10 October 2006.
  61. ↑ Rubin, Michael (1 September 2006). "Can Iran Be Trusted?". The Middle East Forum: Promoting American Interests. Retrieved 10 October 2006.
  62. 1 2 Webster, Philip, Ben Hoyle and Ramita Navai (20 January 2005). "Ayatollah revives the death fatwa on Salman Rushdie". The Times (London). Retrieved 10 October 2006.
  63. ↑ "Iran adamant over Rushdie fatwa". BBC News. 12 February 2005. Retrieved 10 October 2006.
  64. 1 2 "Iran says Rushdie fatwa still stands". Iran Focus. 14 February 2006. Retrieved 22 January 2007.
  65. ↑ "Rushdie's term". Retrieved 15 February 2007.
  66. ↑ Marzorati, Gerald, "Salman Rushdie: Fiction's Embattled Infidel", The New York Times Magazine, 29 January 1989
  67. ↑ Anthony Harly, "Saving Mr. Rushdie?" Encounter, June 1989, p. 74
  68. ↑ 15 February 1989
  69. ↑ The Independent, 16 March 1989
  70. ↑ League for the Spread of Unpopular Views. West German organization, Bund zur Verbreitung unerwunschter Einsichten [Hamburg], "Der Fall Rushdie und die Feigheit des Westerns," pamphlet, p. 3. quoted in Pipes 1990, p.250
  71. ↑ Peregrine Worsthorne, "The Blooding of the Literati", The Sunday Telegraph, 19 February 1989
  72. ↑ Islamic Revolution News Agency, 7 March 1989
  73. ↑ Kayhan Havai, 18 April 1989
  74. ↑ Len Riggioi quoted in Publishers Weekly, 10 March 1989
  75. ↑ Pipes, 1990, p.200-1
  76. ↑ Pipes, 1990, p.205
  77. ↑ "RUSHDIE: Haunted by his unholy ghosts" (PDF). Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  78. ↑ Salman Rushdie, "Beginning of a Novelist's Thralldom" The Observer, 26 February 1989
  79. ↑ 6 March 1989 published in Granta, Autumn 1989
  80. ↑ Pipes, 1990, p.203
  81. 1 2 Daniel Pipes (28 December 1990). "Rushdie Fails to Move the Zealots". Los Angeles Times.
  82. ↑ Shikha Dalmia from the August/September 2005 issue. "The Iconoclast". Reason. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  83. ↑ Alison Flood (12 April 2012). "Salman Rushdie reveals details of fatwa memoir". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  84. ↑ Pipes, 1990, p.85
  85. ↑ Mis/Representations of Islam: Reading Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, By Ismail Isa Patel London 1998
  86. ↑ Syed Ali Ashraf, writing in Impact International, 28 October 1988
  87. ↑ ad by the Birmingham Central Mosque in British newspapers
  88. ↑ Dawud Assad, president of the U.S. Council of Masajid quoted in Trenton Times, 21 February 1989
  89. ↑ a young French Muslim quoted in Le Nouvel Observateur, 23 March 1989
  90. ↑ M. Rafiqul Islam, The Rushdie Affair: A Conflict of Rights unpublished manuscript, April 1989, p.3
  91. ↑ Salman Rushdie, "The Satanic Verses", Random House, 1988, p. 393
  92. ↑ Mir Husayn Musavi, prime minister of Iran, quoted on Radio Tehran 21 February 1989
  93. ↑ (Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah, Agence France Press, 27 February 1989)
  94. ↑ (Shaykh Ahmad Kaftaru, mufti of the Syrian Arab Republic, source: Syrian Arab News Agency, 1 March 1989
  95. ↑ Religious affairs director of Turkish government, Mustafa Sait Yazicioglu, Radio Ankara 14 March 1989
  96. ↑ Sayed M. Syeed, secretary general of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists in the United States, Philadelphia Inquirer, 14 February 1989
  97. ↑ Libyan ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
  98. ↑ editorial in The Jordan Times, 5 March 1989]
  99. 1 2 broadcast Radio Tehran, 7 March 1989 quoted in Pipes, 1990, p.124-5
  100. ↑ From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and Its Aftermath By Kenan Malik, chapter one, (no page numbers)
  101. ↑ From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and Its Aftermath By Kenan Malik, introduction, part 5, no page numbers
  102. ↑ Pipes, 1990 p.108
  103. 1 2 Pipes, 1990 p.108, 118–9
  104. ↑ John Updike, The Wall Street Journal, 10 August 1989
  105. ↑ Rushdie, Salman, Jaguar Smile, p.50
  106. ↑ "The Importance of Being Earnest About Salman Rushdie" by Sadeq al-'Azm, in M.D. Fletcher, Reading Rushdie: Perspectives on the Fiction of Salman Rushdie, Amsterdam, Rodopi B.V., 1994
  107. ↑ Pipes, 1990, p.148, 175
  108. 1 2 Andrew Anthony (11 January 2009). "How one book ignited a culture war". The Observer.
  109. ↑ "International Herald Tribune", 4 July 2007
  110. ↑ Jimmy Carter, "Rushdie's Book Is an Insult", The New York Times, 5 March 1989
  111. 1 2 Rachel Donadio (4 July 2007). "Salman Rushdie: Fighting words on a knighthood". The New York Times.
  112. ↑ "Le Carré regrets Rushdie fatwa feud". The Daily Telegraph. 12 November 2012.
  113. ↑ "3d Anniversary of Edict Against Rushdie". The New York Times. 13 February 1992.
  114. ↑ Barbara Bradley Hagerty (16 December 2011). "For Hitchens, In Life And Death, An Unaware Cosmos". NPR.
  115. ↑ Longworth, R.C. (11 March 1989). "Britain's blasphemy laws getting renewed attention". The Free Lance–Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia). p. 5. Retrieved 16 November 2009.
  116. ↑ Michael Walzer, "The Sins of Salman", The New Republic, 10 April 1989
  117. ↑ The Times, 4 March 1989
  118. ↑ "Being God's Postman Is No Fun, Yaar": Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. Srinivas Aravamudan.Diacritics, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Summer, 1989), pp. 3–20
  119. ↑ Postmodernist Perceptions of Islam: Observing the Observer. Akbar S. Ahmed. Asian Survey, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Mar. 1991), pp. 213–231
  120. ↑ Shahabuddin, Syed. "You did this with satanic forethought, Mr. Rushdie". The Times of India. 13 October 1988.
  121. ↑ Arun Shourie: How should we respond? In The Observer of Business and Politics, New Delhi, 26 November 1993, also published in many other Indian newspapers and periodicals and reprinted in Sita Ram Goel (ed.): Freedom of Expression – Secular Theocracy Versus Liberal Democracy, 1998 ISBN 81-85990-55-7.
  122. ↑ Statement by Indian intellectuals on Syed Shahabuddin's attempt to make the authorities impose a ban on the book Hindu View of Christianity and Islam by Ram Swarup, Delhi, 18 November. Reprinted in Sita Ram Goel (ed.): Freedom of Expression – Secular Theocracy Versus Liberal Democracy 1998 ISBN 81-85990-55-7
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  124. ↑ Pipes, 1990, p.21
  125. 1 2 Pipes, 1990, p.23
  126. ↑ Malik, Kenan. From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and Its Aftermath. Melville House (2010): p. 4
  127. ↑ Pipes, 1990, p.25
  128. ↑ "Freedom of Information and Expression in India". London: Article 19. October 1990.
  129. ↑ Pipes, 1990, p.26
  130. ↑ Pipes, 1990, p.28-9
  131. ↑ Article "Iran suggests an apology could save life of Rushdie; Rushdie controversy". The Times (London, England), 18 February 1989, accessed via Infotrac.
  132. ↑ Edwin McDowell (18 February 1989). "Furor Over 'Satanic Verses' Rises As 2 More Book Chains Halt Sales". The New York Times.
  133. ↑ Article "Iranians in confusion after Rushdie apologizes; Rushdie controversy". The Sunday Times (London, England), 19 February 1989, accessed via Infotrac.
  134. ↑ Mark S. Hoffman. World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1990. World Almanac Books. ISBN 0-88687-559-5.
  135. ↑ Kevin Roderick and John J. Goldman (1 March 1989). "Firebombs Damage 2 Berkeley Book Shops : Another Hits N.Y. Newspaper; Bush Warns Against Violent Protests Over Rushdie Novel". Los Angeles Times.
  136. ↑ Samuel G. Freedman (30 May 2009). "Two Rabbis Find They're Separated Only by Doctrine". The New York Times.
  137. ↑ Ross, Andy. "Remembering the Rushdie Affair". Ask the Agent: Night Thoughts about Books and Publishing. wordpress.com. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  138. ↑ R. Whitney, Craig (23 May 1989). "Cat Stevens Gives Support To Call for Death of Rushdie". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 January 2006.
  139. ↑ Pipes, 1990, p.181
  140. ↑ John Gabriel (12 November 2012). Racism, Culture, Markets. Routledge. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-134-86775-2. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
  141. ↑ Bremner, Charles. The Times (London) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article531110.ece. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  142. ↑ "Nobel Judge Steps Down in Protest". BBC News. 11 October 2005. Retrieved 13 October 2007.
  143. ↑ Associated Press, "Who Deserves Nobel Prize? Judges Don't Agree", MSNBC, 11 October 2005. Retrieved 13 October 2007.
  144. ↑ WEISMAN, Steven R. (13 July 1991). "Japanese Translator of Rushdie Book Found Slain", The New York Times.
  145. ↑ Afterword: The Rushdie Affair's Legacy
  146. ↑ IMDb entry for Have I Got News for You, 10 June 1994.
  147. ↑ "Rushdie haunted by his unholy ghosts by Mohamed Arshad Ahmedi". Scribd.com. 7 November 2006. Archived from the original on 11 April 2009. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
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  149. ↑ "SA unbans Satanic Verses at library's request". Star. 15 January 2002. Archived from the original on 16 October 2007.
  150. ↑ Hamilton, James (16 February 2003). "Revived fatwa puts $3m bounty on Rushdie". Sunday Herald. Archived from the original on 4 April 2003. Retrieved 4 April 2003.
  151. ↑ "Was London Bomb Plot Heralded on Web?". CBS News. 29 June 2007.
  152. ↑ "Despite controversy, govt says won't stop Rushdie". Hindustan Times. India. 10 January 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
  153. ↑ Singh, Akhilesh Kumar (20 January 2012). "Salman Rushdie not to attend Jaipur Literature Festival". The Times of India (India). Retrieved 20 January 2012.
  154. 1 2 Singh, Akhilesh Kumar (24 January 2012). "Jaipur Literature Festival: Even a virtual Rushdie is unwelcome for Rajasthan govt". The Times of India (India). Retrieved 24 January 2012.
  155. ↑ Singh, Akhilesh Kumar; Chowdhury, Shreya Roy (23 January 2012). "Salman Rushdie shadow on Jaipur Literature Festival: 4 authors who read from 'The Satanic Verses' sent packing". The Times of India (India). Retrieved 23 January 2012.
  156. ↑ "Salman Rushdie: Satanic Verses 'would not be published today'". BBC News. 17 September 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  157. ↑ Cain, Sian (2016-02-22). "Salman Rushdie: Iranian media raise more money for fatwa". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-02-25.
  158. ↑ "Freedom of Speech: Wilders, Orwell, and the "Koran Ban"". Dr. Andrew Bostom.

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