One of the main characters, Gibreel Farishta, has a series of dreams in which he becomes his namesake, the angel Gibreel. Rushdie’s novel takes up these core beliefs. These words were eventually written down and became the verses and chapters of the Quran. In turn, Muhammed repeated the words to his followers. Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammed was visited by the angel Gibreel – Gabriel in English – who, over a 22 year period, recited God’s words to him. The book, “Satanic Verses,” goes to the heart of Muslim religious beliefs when Rushdie, in dream sequences, challenges and sometimes seems to mock some of its most sensitive tenets. What was – and still is – behind this outrage? The controversy Angry demonstrators protest against the book in 1989. Born in India to a Muslim family, but by then a British citizen living in the U.K., Rushdie was forced to go into protective hiding for the greater part of a decade. One of the most controversial books in recent literary history, Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses,” was published three decades ago this month and almost immediately set off angry demonstrations all over the world, some of them violent.Ī year later, in 1989, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, ordering Muslims to kill the author. The following article was published on the 30th anniversary of the release of The Satanic Verses. Myriam Renaud, Union Institute & UniversityĪuthor Salman Rushdie is in the hospital with serious injuries after being stabbed by a man at an arts festival in New York State on Aug.

Author Salman Rushdie pictured in London in 2017.

The satanic verses 30 years on