After The Satanic Verses was published in 1988, its treatment of Islam and its depiction of the prophet Muhammad were deemed blasphemous by the Iranian government, and author Salman Rushdie was sentenced to death under a 1989 fatwā issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini. Rushdie lived in fear and seclusion until 1998, when the succeeding government of President Mohammad Khatami declined to support the death sentence. His 2012 memoir Joseph Anton, named after the alias he used while in hiding, details this period of his life. With its status as the cause of international controversy and debate about the limits of free expression, The Satanic Verses has continued to be translated, sold, and widely read around the world.
- Salman Rushdie: between the devil and the deep blue sea (video). New York: Filmakers Library, 1998. Academic Video Online.
