Satanic Verses controversy

Uncommon card · No. 106822

The Satanic Verses controversy, also known as the Rushdie Affair, was a controversy sparked by the 1988 publication of The Satanic Verses by the Indian born British-American author Salman Rushdie. It centred on the novel's references to the Satanic Verses (apocryphal verses of the Quran), and came to include a larger debate about censorship and religious violence. It included numerous killings, attempted killings (including against Rushdie himself), and bombings by perpetrators who supported Islam. The affair had a notable impact on geopolitics when Ruhollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a fatwa in 1989 ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie. The Iranian government has changed its support for the fatwa several times, including in 1998 when Mohammad Khatami said the regime no longer supported it. In 2017, a statement was published on the official website of then-supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, stating that "the decree is as Imam Khomeini (ra) issued" and in February 2019, the Khamenei...

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