Salman Rushdie to live under police protection for several years. On 7 March 1989, the United Kingdom and Iran broke diplomatic relations over the Rushdie controversy. When, on BBC Radio 4, he was asked for a response to the threat, Rushdie said, "Frankly, I wish I had written a more critical book," and 'I'm very sad that it should have happened. It's not true that this book is a blasphemy against Islam. I doubt very much that Khomeini or anyone else in Iran has read the book or more than selected extracts out of context.' Later, he wrote that he was "proud,
A Brief History of Blasphemy mental suffering. A Brief History of Blasphemy A Brief History of Blasphemy: Liberalism, Censorship and the Satanic Verses is a 1990 book by Richard Webster, in which the author discusses the controversy over Salman Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses" (1988). Webster critiques the freedom to blaspheme, and argues against "The Crime of Blasphemy" (which advocated the abolition of Britain's blasphemy laws "without replacement"). Webster notes that he named the book after the fourth section of "The Crime of Blasphemy", a pamphlet issued by the International Committee for the Defence of Salman Rushdie and his Publishers, and that his work is