Satanic Verses of Allah. This entire matter was a mere footnote to the back-and-forth of religious debate, and was rekindled only when Salman Rushdie's 1988 novel, "The Satanic Verses", made headline news. The novel contains some fictionalized allusions to Islamic history, which provoked both controversy and outrage. Muslims around the world protested the book's publishing, and Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa sentencing Rushdie to death, saying that the book blasphemed Muhammad and his wives. Since William Muir, the historicity of this episode has been largely accepted by orientalists. Some orientalists, however, argued against the historic authenticity of these verses on various
Al Goldstein nation. "We didn't bribe the right people or something," he said. In 1989, Goldstein ran a full page ad in "Screw" offering $1 million for the assassination of the Ayatollah Khomeini, in response to Khomeini's fatwa against novelist Salman Rushdie for allegedly blaspheming Islam. In his book "XXX-Communicated: A Rebel Without a Shul", Luke Ford wrote about a conversation with Goldstein, in which Ford asked Goldstein why Jews were dramatically overrepresented in the porn industry. He answered, "The only reason that Jews are in pornography is that we think that Christ sucks. Catholicism sucks. We don't believe in authoritarianism." Ford