I realized I hadn’t post much on literature, besides my own poetry, so for “Say Whaaa… Wednesday” I decided to advocate the need to read controversial books. It seems a stark controversy couples rather nicely with a pleasant story, whether fiction or non-fiction, which always invokes a sense of mischievousness in the reader… oh yes, literature can be bad ass too don’t you know! The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie was read as a sacrilegious treatment of the Islamic faith as Rushdie refers to the Prophet Muhammad as Mahound, which is the medieval name for the devil. The public was outraged and riots broke out in 1989 over the publication of the book where people were killed and many injured in India. Wow, religious tolerance in the world is just blissful isn’t it? I find it ironic so many religions say everyone is equal under the eye of "God"; now wouldn’t that include differing opinions and writers who choose to express their opinions through fictitious novels?
Rushdie did however issue an apology but, get this, Iranian spiritual leader Ayotollah Khomeini went to the extent to issue a $1 million bounty for killing the author, increasing that to $3 million if the assassin was Iranian. Even Venezuelan officials threatened anyone who owned the books could possibly be sentenced to 15 months in prison! The Japanese imposed a fine for anyone selling the English edition and translators were getting murdered for interpreting the book for interested individuals. Major U.S book dealers even removed the book from their shelves due to death threats and Rushdie remained in hiding for almost a decade.
Wow, such hostility towards the book makes it all the more appealing! I couldn’t believe a novel could cause such chaos throughout the world, especially since it was simply criticizing a religious… ohhhh right, I forgot.
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