The Rushdie Affair: The Novel, the Ayatollah, and the West

This book is a must read for anyone contemplating the reading of Salman Rushdie's, "The Satanic Verses." It places into perspective an insight into all of the hoopla. Salman Rushdie wrote a little book back in 1988 that literally placed his head on a platter. Was it literature or blasphemy against the Islamic religion? The debate continues to this day. In this book Daniel Pipes (author of several books on the Middle East), attempts to explain the controversy that exists around Rushdie's words. The satanic verses are basically a few words referring to the existence of Meccan goddesses and whether or not they were acknowledged by the Prophet Muhammad. Apparently historical beliefs exist that suggest the possibility of Muhammad being coerced by nobles to recognize their idols/goddesses in exchange for a chance to continue preaching within their vicinity without restrictions. The problem with this theory is that it then makes the religion of Islam non-existent as a faith because it goes against the monotheistic belief that Islam is based upon and also suggests that Muhammad wrote the Holy Qur'an as a human being and not as an inspired prophet of God. Rushdie ran into trouble when he wrote an extremely blasphemous novel based on these controversial verses and basically laughed into the face of the Islamic faith ruffling some very fundamentalist feathers along the way. Daniel Pipe brings a relatable book to the table which explains how Rushdie, the Ayatollah and the West started and resolved the controversy surrounding, "The Satanic Verses." What was once a complicated issue now seems entirely explainable from all fronts due to this book by Pipes. Rushdie is explained as a highly educated man who spends his life basically making a mockery of many things with an intellectual snobbery and seemingly massive ego. However Rushdie has a right to freedom of speech that is without question, but was that right taken to extremes in order to create a platform for infamy? In my opinion Rushdie knew exactly what he was creating and in fact weathered the storm quite well while receiving a mountain of publicity and notoriety that quite possibly the novel on its own doesn't stand up to. I believe the average reader would not be able to relate to Rushdie's weighty style and cultural references and that had the uproar been non-existent the novel would be relegated to the discount book pile and soon forgotten. Rushdie has great marketing skills but at what price? So why such a violent response? Pipes writes a thorough explanation as to why the Ayatollah decreed a fatwa against Rushdie and his publishers. In the western world this action appears rather harsh but in the Islamic tradition of punishment towards individuals who blaspheme God it was merely an action supported by a law most westerners do not understand. Call it cultural divide if you will with a huge exclamation point! And so it goes. This book provides additional insight into the ever present differences b

Now in an updated and expanded second edition, The Rushdie Affair: The Novel, The Ayatollah, And The West by Daniel Pipes (Director of the Middle East Forum and a columnist for the "New York Post" and the "Jerusalem Post", studies the events that played out when Salman Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses" was denounced by Muslim clerics as blasphemous to Islam, resulting in a confrontation that led to an Iranian edict demanding the execution of the author. Scrutinizing not only modern history, but also what it shows about further relations between different nations and world views, The Rushdie Affair is a informed and informative account which is very highly recommended for anyone seeking a better understanding contemporary Islam in general, and this defining controversy in particular.

Here is one example: the title of Rushdie's book. Pipes explains that while in English "the Satanic verses" is a plain ordinary phrase that refers to an embaraasing event in Islamic history, this phrase is not used in Arabic. Most Muslims won't recognize the event by that designation; Muslims call it something quite different. But when "verses" is translated into Arabic the word used refers specifically to Quranic verses. So the title is translated roughly as "The Satanic Verses of the Quran" or "The Satanic Quran". Don't assume from this that Pipes if profferring an apologetic. He is not; this book is critical of "fundamentalist Islam". But Pipes is careful to explain how such Muslims think and react.

Salman Rushdie is brilliant. He knows who to derive from and steal from: James Joyce being one of his main sources. Good for him. If you're going to steal, steal from the best. Joyce's footprints are all over THE SATANIC VERSES. I felt at home. And Rushdie's tough and demanding like Joyce. Even moreso because he's dealing with issues western readers are not familiar with. So you have to go slow and get internet help (plenty available). Slowly, the novel begins to take shape. It's a book of dreams and nightmares bounded by the first and last very moving chapters about Chamcha's domestic crises with his father and ensuing alienation. Chamcha's torn between cultures, a lost searching soul, an alienated man. He's also an intellectual prig who wears many protective masks to conceal his sufferings and with which he explores religious and emotional wanderings. Read the first and last chapters to make contact with the down to earth domestic issues of the novel. Very moving. In between, you have this massive and intensive and witty and funny and dark and brilliant exploration of Muslim religion as seen from a willing/unwilling, searching unbeliever's point of view. He mocks and participates all at the same time. The language is gorgeous because it moves on many levels--from slang to pop to literary to religious, back and forth--and from the point of view of two languages and cultures. At one minute it's blasphemous, at another it's holy...and it's always a rich and makes the reader smile, smile, smile at the author's brilliance and learning. It's linguistic magic. What does it all add up to? You got me. I haven't scratched the surface. It may or may not add up. Talk to me in a year.

Written shortly after the major events surrounding the Rushdie Conflict (though not before the murder of the Japanese translator of the Satanic Verses), Daniel Pipes provides major insight and perspective into the root causes of this international conflagration. He provides both a breakdown of Rushdie's work, and an explanation of the translation difficulties that further encouraged misunderstanding about the Book's actual contents. He appears to have a steady grasp of Arabic by the bibliography and transliteration, consonant with a fair amount of expertise in analyzing Islam. He provides the Islamic rationales for trying Salman Rushdie for apostasy, and indicates the questionableness of Khomeini's method (not the penalty itself) even under Islamic standards.(Gotta give 'em a trial, a chance to repent over three days, and then chop-chop- at least for the Sunni variety of Islam, though the various madhdhabs or schools of jurisprudence differ on the exact details of divinely sanctioned murder.) After reading the Satanic Verses, I whole heartedly concur that because of its level of erudition and numerous allusions to less familiar (to Westerners) stories from the salvation history of Islam to South Asian culture, it is no surprise how few people actually read the entire novel. But what is rather disturbing about human nature, is that this didn't stop complete Ignoramuses from opining- Pipes provides a multitude of quotes indicating the level of hearsay fed to the masses. Pipes also emphasizes the unprecedented scale of this eruption of world-wide riots and protests, citing works critical of Islam with far graver blasphemies. One blasphemous volume mentioned by Pipes that I found enjoyable was 23 years- a critical biography of the Prophet Muhammad by Ali Dashti, who although Pipes doesn't make reference to it, "disappeared" in 1980's Iran. Pipes also mentions some of the effects the conflict had on the front lines of bookselling and publishing, pondering over the possible changes the death threats and bombings inaugrated by religious fervor. A decade later, I don't know how to guage his power of prophecy, but his commentary on the complex intersecting issues remain both incisive and fascinating.