Satanic Verses Controversy Salman Rushdie

The Satanic Verses controversy was the heated and sometimes violent reaction of some 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 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.

The Iranian government backed the fatwa against Rushdie until 1998, when the government of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said the government no longer supported the killing of Rushdie.


The issue was said to have divided "Muslim from Westerners along the fault line of culture," 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"  – despite this being the view of many Muslims – that no one should be free to "insult and malign Muslims" by disparaging the "honour of the Prophet" Muhammad.