# Why Did Muslims Go Crazy Over "The Satanic Verses"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 15, 2012, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794 "2012-10-15T17:39:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/1 "2012-10-15T17:39:13Z")
With all the stuff going on, I was curious about the rioting that came about over Salman Rushdie’s 1988 novel. I picked up a copy, and the objectionable stuff is only reached after a long, boring dialogue between the two main characters. As I see it, it concerns some (allegedly) blasphemous traditions which are revealed in one of the character’s dreams. As far as I can see, the blasphemous stuff is really secondary to the real topic (that is the dilemma of belonging to two cultures)-which the characters wrestle with. As I say, to reach this means going through a lot of quite dull (IMHO) writing-how many of the people who protested the novel actually would have read it? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/2 "2012-10-15T18:01:58Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > As I say, to reach this means going through a lot of quite dull (IMHO) writing-how many of the people who protested the novel actually would have read it? Practically none, I’m sure. How many of the people who protest any work of art actually read or see it first? Most people don’t like to confront stuff that offends them and it’s sort of beside the point. They don’t want to know about the broader artistic context. Almost all of the offended people were taking directions from their imams or other people who found it politically advantageous to be “offended” by the book. They heard it was blasphemous or disrespectful to Islam based on shifty or false descriptions about the content and that was all they needed. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/3 "2012-10-15T18:02:21Z")
I’m not sure what you mean. There are a number of chapters of the book that follow the life of Muhammad, showing him with various human flaws. Is that what you mean by “one of the character’s dreams”? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/4 "2012-10-15T18:14:25Z")
I can’t find it now, but I read a good article on it a few weeks ago. Basically, it was bad timing, as the novel out during an unrelated diplomatic spat between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The result was that the Ayatollah and some Clerics in SA launched a “more fundemantalist then thou” contest to see who could be more extreme in condemning the book and show themselves as the leaders of the Muslim world. One group condemned it, the other condemned it and called for it to be burned, the first countered by calling for all of Rushdie’s works to be burned, till finally they were both calling for the author to be killed. Not that mullahs wouldn’t have condemned the book in anycase, but the extreme reaction it got was more about the need for a prop to use in internal Muslim world politics then about the book itself. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/5 "2012-10-15T18:28:00Z")
I haven’t heard that before and it is not mentioned on Wikipedia or in Rushdie’s recent memoir, so I’m skeptical. The book was released in September 1988 and there were some protests in a variety of countries in the months that followed, including the U.K. Those gained steam over time (because of media coverage), and the fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death was issued in February 1989. Khomeini was dying, and the political background as I understand it is that the Iran-Iraq War had just recently ended and it had badly damaged Khomeini’s credibility. He and his people were able to redirect the public’s frustration with them and the war onto the book. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/6 "2012-10-15T21:02:06Z")
Eschew rejecting the obvious. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/7 "2012-10-15T21:28:01Z")
I can’t help wondering if the title of the book(which references a real issue: [Satanic Verses - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_Verses) ) helped fuel the outrage, with people just assuming it was referring to the Koran as a whole or something. How many people know about some obscure excised text? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/8 "2012-10-15T21:29:37Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I can’t help wondering if the title of the book(which references a real issue: [Satanic Verses - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_Verses) ) helped fuel the outrage, with people just assuming it was referring to the Koran as a whole or something. The issue was the way the Muhammad character (Mahound) and Islam (including the Satanic Verses incident) were depicted, not the book title. Although once people had decided to make an issue out of it they probably said whatever they wanted to say about it. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/9 "2012-10-15T21:46:24Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Eschew rejecting the obvious. [Acquire currency](http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/35o04z/). ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/10 "2012-10-15T23:47:46Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > how many of the people who protested the novel actually would have read it? Probably about as many fundamentalist Christians who went crazy over _The Last Temptation of Christ_ went to see that. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/11 "2012-10-15T23:54:05Z")
Thailand banned the book after it came out. It’s a Buddhist country but still has a fairly significant Muslim minority, especially down South near Malaysia. Just wanted to keep the piece, I guess. My father was still alive back then and mailed me a copy at my request. There’s a special feeling to reading a banned book in a country where it’s banned. I’ve seen it on the shelves of major bookstores in Bangkok since then though, so I guess the ban is off now. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/12 "2012-10-16T00:34:14Z")
They didn’t. It was just because Khomeinin issued a fathwah after browsing through the book did the noise level go up. Before that, it was just the scholarly muslims who were (peacefully) voicing their objections. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/13 "2012-10-16T01:03:25Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > They didn’t. It was just because Khomeinin issued a fathwah after browsing through the book did the noise level go up. Before that, it was just the scholarly muslims who were (peacefully) voicing their objections. Still not true. > **[Satanic Verses controversy | Muslim response and book bannings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Satanic_Verses_controversy#Muslim_response_and_book_bannings)** > > After the book was first published in the United Kingdom (in September 1988), there were protests by Muslims that predominantly took place in India and the UK. When the book was published in February 1989 in the United States, it received renewed attention, and worldwide protests began to take a more violent form.\[citation needed\] > In Islamic communities, the novel became instantly controversial, because of what some Muslims considered blasphemous references. Rushdie was accused of misusing freed... > [@](#): > > ``` > 26 September 1988: The novel is published in the UK. > Khushwant Singh, while reviewing the book in Illustrated Weekly, proposed a ban on "Satanic Verses", apprehending the reaction it may evoke among people. > 5 October 1988: India bans the novel's importation, after Indian parliamentarian and editor of the monthly magazine Muslim India Syed Shahabuddin petitioned the government of Rajiv Gandhi to ban the book.[107][108][109] In 1993 Syed Shahabuddin tried unsuccessfully to ban another book (Ram Swarup's "Hindu View of Christianity and Islam").[110][111] > October 1988: Death threats against Rushdie compel him to cancel trips and sometimes take a bodyguard. Letter writing campaign to Viking Press in America brings "tens of thousands of menacing letters".[112] > 20 October 1988: Union of Muslim Organisations of the UK writes the British government pressing for a ban of The Satanic Verse on grounds of blasphemy.[113] > 21 November 1988: Grand sheik of Egypt's Al-Azhar calls on Islamic organisations in Britain to take legal action to prevent the novel's distribution > 24 November 1988: The novel is banned in South Africa and Pakistan; bans follow within weeks in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Somalia, Bangladesh, Sudan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Qatar. > 2 December 1988: First book burning of The Satanic Verses in UK. 7000 Muslims attend rally burning the book in Bolton.[114] > > ``` > > 1989 > > ``` > 14 January 1989: A copy of the book burned in Bradford. Extensive media coverage and debate. Some support from non-Muslims.[114] > January 1989: Islamic Defense Council demands that Penguin Books apologise, withdraw the novel, destroy any extant copies, and never reprint it. > 12 February 1989: Six people are killed and 100 injured when 10,000 attack the American Cultural Center in Islamabad, Pakistan protesting against Rushdie and his book.[115] > 13 February 1989: One person is killed and over 100 injured in anti-Rushdie riots in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. > > ``` The fatwa was issued on February 14. I’m not aware of Khomeini browsing a copy either. It may have just been described to him. The fatwa was unusual in that it was just issued as a typewritten letter given to a state TV anchor to be read on air. To the extent there is a proper procedure with things like this, it was not followed. I do have to retract what I said to **grude** earlier, as it sounds like there really were people who managed to interpret the title as suggesting the whole Quran was Satanic. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/14 "2012-10-16T05:29:30Z")
What I don’t understand-the Muslims who rioted, burned property, etc.: were they worried that non-Muslims would read the book, and get the wrong idea about Islam? Or were they worried that Muslims would read the book and get the wrong idea about Islam? As I say, the book takes time to read, and nobody who wants to slander something writes a long, rather boring novel to do so. How many people would read a book like “Mein Kampf” today, and use it to promote anti-semitism? ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/15 "2012-10-16T05:58:47Z")
I’ve yet to read the book myself, but wasn’t there also speculation that it was because one of the characters in the story was basically a caricature (obviously an unflattering one) of Khomeni himself? ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/16 "2012-10-16T07:58:43Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > With all the stuff going on, I was curious about the rioting that came about over Salman Rushdie’s 1988 novel. I picked up a copy, and the objectionable stuff is only reached after a long, boring dialogue between the two main characters. As I see it, it concerns some (allegedly) blasphemous traditions which are revealed in one of the character’s dreams. > As far as I can see, the blasphemous stuff is really secondary to the real topic (that is the dilemma of belonging to two cultures)-which the characters wrestle with. > As I say, to reach this means going through a lot of quite dull (IMHO) writing-how many of the people who protested the novel actually would have read it? I can’t figure out how anyone stayed awake to get to any dubious material. 🙂 Seriously, though, SV was one of the more boring books I’ve ever attempted to read (I _think_ I finished it, but this was 20+ years ago). ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/17 "2012-10-16T12:30:55Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > What I don’t understand-the Muslims who rioted, burned property, etc.: were they worried that non-Muslims would read the book, and get the wrong idea about Islam? Or were they worried that Muslims would read the book and get the wrong idea about Islam? If they were worried about people getting the wrong idea, I don’t think they would have rioted. The issue was the fact that he “insulted” the religion, so he had to die. > [@Ranchoth](#): > > I’ve yet to read the book myself, but wasn’t there also speculation that it was because one of the characters in the story was basically a caricature (obviously an unflattering one) of Khomeni himself? Yes. When I read the book a few years ago I was surprised I hadn’t heard more about that. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/18 "2012-10-16T12:36:25Z")
The fatwa was issued on Feb. 14th. I bought my copy at Cody’s in Berkeley on the 18th. 10 days later somebody firebombed the place. Evidently people read faster at Cal. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/19 "2012-10-17T15:55:07Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > What I don’t understand-the Muslims who rioted, burned property, etc.: were they worried that non-Muslims would read the book, and get the wrong idea about Islam? Or were they worried that Muslims would read the book and get the wrong idea about Islam? > As I say, the book takes time to read, and nobody who wants to slander something writes a long, rather boring novel to do so. How many people would read a book like “Mein Kampf” today, and use it to promote anti-semitism? There is a ban on depicting Mohammed or insulting him in any way. It is not like if someone says your mother is a whore, you get upset because you think people might believe it and start soliciting your mother, you get mad at the insult. They were mad at the insult and wanted revenge and to discourage other people from insulting Mohammed. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794/20 "2012-10-17T15:58:29Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > There is a ban on depicting Mohammed or insulting him in any way. The ban you’re talking about refers to visual art. And I believe insults to Islam itself, not just Muhammad, are supposed to be punishable by death. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-muslims-go-crazy-over-the-satanic-verses/637794.md?page=2)