The Satanic Verses controversy in 2000. Meanwhile, in America, the director of the Near East Studies Center at UCLA, George Sabbagh, told an interviewer that Khomeini was "completely within his rights" to call for Rushdie's death. In May 1989 in Beirut, Lebanon, British citizen Jackie Mann was abducted "in response to Iran's fatwa against Salman Rushdie for the publication of book the Satanic Verses and more specifically, for his refuge and protection in the United Kingdom". He joined several Westerners held hostage there. Two months earlier a photograph of three teachers held hostage was released by Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine with
Luka and the Fire of Life Luka and the Fire of Life Luka and the Fire of Life is a novel by Salman Rushdie. It was published by Jonathan Cape, Random House in 2010. It is the sequel to "Haroun and the Sea of Stories". Rushdie has said "he turned to the world of video games for inspiration" and that "he wrote the book for his 13-year-old son". The book opens with protagonist Luka and his father Rashid walking home from Luka's school in the fictional city of Kahani in the land of Alifbay. They pass the Great Rings of Fire circus, where, upon seeing the