I have it recorded and will watch it later.

of the Iranian gov't. when the fatwa was issued, and that lasted for a number of years before the situation was finally defused through USA/UK diplomatic efforts (are you listening, Fuckwitt Mitt?).

He also added that this latest "enhanced bounty" effort is the work of one lone nut cleric, and he's not taking it even a little bit seriously. Very interesting interview!

book they have not read. They call for censorship and restrictions in service to criminal thugs who want to hold the mind of the world hostage. Rusdie is correct on all his points.

But from what I have heard about it's no more inflammatory than The Last Temptaion Of Christ which I have not seen.

The Last Temptation of Christ has a narrative conceit (actually two of them, now that I think about it) that would be considered heretical by most Christian, and definitely by Catholics, but the movie treats the life and character of Jesus, and the story of the events around his death pretty respectfully. Other than the final third of the movie, it's a pretty standard Passion play.

The Satanic Verses contains an extended retelling of the foundation of Islam told in an extremely insulting manner - Mohammad is named Mahound (a Crusader-era term that equated Mohammad with Satan), and is characterized as a pretty shifty and insincere opportunist, the local brothels start naming their prostitutes after Mahound's wives, and various other details that add a sarcastic bite to most of the legends about Mohammed's rise to prominence. There is also an extended subplot about a charismatic religious fanatic that leads an entire villiage into (probable) doom. And a section about Khomeini's exile in Paris that depicts him as one of those Hellmouth pictures that are all over the crazier paintings of Bosch and Bruegel.

Now, in context, the whole "foundation of Islam" section are the dreams of a paranoid schizophrenic undergoing an existential crisis, so it's not as if Rushdie was directly insulting Islam, but it is obvious to anyone who is at all familiar with his novels that he is using this fantastic premise to do some ax grinding. Oddly though, given all of this, of the two main characters, the one that embraces his religious heritage ends up in a much happier place than the one that doesn't.

Of course, The Satanic Verses is even more critical of the government and society of the 1980s UK toward immigrants than it is of Islam, but the British government went to considerable expense and trouble to defend Rushdie anyway.

Everybody remembers Khomeini's fatwa, but before that, the controversy over the book was used to stir up the crowd during the 1988 Pakistan elections.

I've heard him on the teevee box a few times and he is a very thoughtful and insightful man who knows whereof he speaks.

He said it's easy to get groups to protest and do mayhem because the people in those areas live a dismal life; a man with a family has a tough time making ends meet and rearing a family in decent circumstances, so they're angry to begin with. It's easy to get them riled up.

He did the remarks for the "Opening Days" but no one told us ahead of time who would be speaking - it was very hush hush. When we got to the auditorium, there were private security people all around the perimeter of the building and inside. It looked like the secret service so some of my friends thought the speaker might be Clinton. When Rushdie appeared on stage, it all clicked and I felt a little sorry for him. He was even flanked by security when doing his book signing afterward. I know he downplayed the fatwa in the interview last night and said that it disappeared after a few years, but clearly the threat was still there. I can't imagine what it would be like having to live for decades being hunted because you wrote a book that was found to be offensive by people who never read it.