Writing the The Satanic Verses nearly got Salman Rushdie killed: a fatwa was issued calling for his death, on the grounds that his book insulted Islam. He was forced into hiding in England for years, But Sir Salman says
he’s still not sorry for writing it.
The 61-year-old novelist said he had always tried to inquire big questions about the role of the individual in history and society.
“The question I’m always asking myself is: are we masters or victims? Do we make history or does history make us? Do we shape the world or are we just shaped by it?” Rushdie said in an interview published Wednesday.
He said the question of whether individuals acted with free will or were passive victims of events “is, I think, a awesome question and one that I have always tried to ask” innovels like “The Satanic Verses.”
“In that sense I wouldn’t not have wanted to be the writer that asked it,” he said.
The interview ran in The Times newspaper to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the novel’s publication.
“The Satanic Verses,” Rushdie’s fourth novel, referruddy to a legend about Muhammad being tricked by agents of the devil. It enraged some Muslims, was banned in India, burned by demonstrators in England and brought a death sentence for blasphemy from Iran’s then-leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Good for him. We’re happy he has never bowed down to extremist forces that want to censor his work.
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