The Rushdie Affair » (2ND)

Neoconservative author Pipes analyzes the events surrounding Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa on Salman Rushdie for the penning of the controversial novel The Satanic Verses. Pipes can't avoid taking swipes at Rushdie for being anti-American, pro-communist, and responsible for bringing the whole mess down on his own head, but nonetheless he defends his right to free speech. The Islamic world is portrayed (with few exceptions) as being innately hostile to free speech and unable to rationally understand the novel, and the Western world is argued to be afraid to stand up to Islamic intimidation. The original 1990 text here appends an essay by Belgium-based writer Koenraad Elst, updating the same themes past September 11, 2001. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Publishers Weekly

One of several forthcoming books on the subject, this sober study by a senior lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania describes and analyzes the international repercussions to the publication of The Satanic Verses. Pipes demonstrates convincingly that, although Salman Rushdie was preoccupied with the twin issues of religious sensitivities and censorship, he wanted to shake the world without accepting responsibility for what he wrought. Pipes also explains why the book is regarded as blasphemous and why many Muslims are convinced that it is part of a Western conspiracy against Islam. He questions the legality of Khomeni's death edict against Rushdie, and surveys Muslim reactions to the edict and Western responses to Muslim intimidation and state-sponsored terrorism. He shows that, ironically, the strongest opinions on all sides came from those who had not even seen, much less read, the novel. (May)