The Satanic Verses controversy The Satanic Verses controversy "The Satanic Verses" controversy, also known as the Rushdie Affair, was the heated and frequently violent reaction of Muslims to the publication of Salman Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses", which was first published in the United Kingdom in 1988 and inspired in part by the life of Muhammad. Many Muslims accused Rushdie of blasphemy or unbelief and in 1989 the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie. Numerous killings, attempted killings, and bombings resulted from violent Muslims over the novel. The Iranian government backed the fatwa against Rushdie until 1998,
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