On 14th February 1989, Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini pronounced a

(death sentence) on Salman Rushdie's life because of the alleged blasphemous representation of Islam and the life of Mohammed in his novel,

. Subsequently, Rushdie was forced to go into hiding until the

was revoked in September 1998. Many other events have since been included in the so-called “Rushdie Affair”: the demand of the British Union of Muslim Organizations for criminal prosecution of Rushdie; India's ban of the book; its ritual burnings in Bolton and Bradford; and the murder of its Japanese translator. Such extreme, prejudicial responses, no doubt involving many who have not read the book, have tended to obscure the novel's main emphases, such as the notion of identity as always under…

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Citation: Parashkevova, Vassilena. "The Satanic Verses". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 November 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7647, accessed 21 November 2024.]