Khomeini vs. Rushdie, Decades Later

"The Satanic Verses" has had a major non-literary legacy.

Ayatollah Khomeini's edict struck down against British novelist Salman Rushdie and his novel The Satanic Verses twenty years ago today. It was a shot from the blue, completely unexpected, unprecedented, and outrageous, a shock that caused two full weeks of furor among literary, political, and religious lions.

To many, the event was quirky and unique, the product of an old man's extremist mentality; few imagined the edict would permanently alter Rushdie's life, much less that it would alter Muslim-Western relations more generally. As Rushdie himself explained last month: "There was a tendency from everybody to believe that it was an isolated incident rather than an indicator of something wider, to believe that it was all my fault."

In retrospect, however, one can see the deep importance of the edict. It strengthened the hand of radical Islam, encouraged Muslims to impose their will on the West, and inspired Muslims in the West to assert themselves. The Rushdie affair was, in short, one of the influential events of the age. (February 14, 2009)

Related Topics:  Freethinking & Muslim apostasy, Muslims in the West, Radical Islam receive the latest by email: subscribe to daniel pipes' free mailing list