The Satanic Verses controversy later wrote "God Is Not Great", a polemic against religion. The affair however led to greater caution and some degree of self-censorship when dealing with Islamic issues in the literary and other creative arts. Many religious figures in the United States and United Kingdom shared the aversion to blasphemy of pious Muslims (if not as intensely) and did not defend Rushdie like their secular compatriots. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, demanded that the government expand the Blasphemy Act to cover other religions, including Islam. Michael Walzer wrote that the response revealed an evolution of the meaning of blasphemy; it
The Rushdie Affair: The Novel, the Ayatollah, and the West The Rushdie Affair: The Novel, the Ayatollah, and the West The Rushdie Affair: The Novel, the Ayatollah, and the West is a book written by historian Daniel Pipes, published in 1990. It focuses on events surrounding "The Satanic Verses". The afterword was written by Koenraad Elst. The first part of the book describes "The Satanic Verses" and Ayatollah Khomeini's edict, explaining why Rushdie's book became a controversy . The second part describes responses to the text and criticizes censorship of the book in some countries. Edward Mortimer, in "The New York Times", called the book "an extremely well-written and clear