The Satanic Verses controversy and in December signed a declaration "affirming his Islamic faith and calling for Viking-Penguin, the publisher of "The Satanic Verses", neither to issue the book in paperback nor to allow it to be translated". This also failed to move supporters of the fatwa and by mid-2005 Rushdie was condemning Islamic fundamentalism as a A memoir of his years of hiding, titled "Joseph Anton", was published on 18 September 2012. Joseph Anton was Rushdie's secret alias. The passionate international rage of Muslims towards the book surprised many Western readers because the book was written in English, not Arabic, Urdu, Persian or
The Satanic Verses target in the events that led to the Sivas massacre on 2 July 1993 in Sivas, Turkey, which resulted in 37 deaths. In September 2012, Rushdie expressed doubt that "The Satanic Verses" would be published today because of a climate of "fear and nervousness". In March 2016, PEN America reported that the bounty for the Rushdie fatwa was raised by $600,000 (£430,000). Top Iranian media contributed this sum, adding to the existing $2.8m already offered. In response, the Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel prize for literature, denounced the death sentence and called it "a serious violation of free speech."