Ahmed Salman Rushdie is a noted Indian-British novelist and essayist who was (and still is) a target of assassination plots after his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), greatly offended the Islamic world. His work has touches of magic realism and historical fiction, with postcolonialism as their overriding theme. Rushdie focuses on the disruptions, connections, and migrations between East and West.

Personal life

Salman Rushdie was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India on June 19, 1947. The family moved to Pakistan when he was 17. He studied at the Cathedral and John Connon School in Bombay and at Rugby Boys' School in England. He was then educated at King's College in Cambridge, finishing with a degree in history. Rushdie experienced racism during his early years in England.

Literary career

Rushdie was a copywriter before he entered the literary world. He published his very first novel, Grimus (1975), following the tradition of Gunter Grass, James Joyce, and the Latin American writers. It was followed by Midnight's Children (1981), a magic realist take on the emergence of the modern India. This novel won him the Booker Prize.

Two years later, Rushdie came up with Shame (1983), depicting Pakistan's political turmoil. This gave him France's Best Foreign Book. He also wrote The Jaguar Smile (1987) a non-fiction work about Nicaragua. He followed this by his controversial The Satanic Verses, and then by The Moor's Last Sigh (1995) and The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999).

The Satanic Verses

Rushdie's The Satanic Verses caused immediate uproar among the world's Muslim population. They viewed the novel as a blasphemous depiction of Muhammad. The title is a reference to a debated Muslim tradition - that the prophet added verses to the Qur'an and later revoked them, claiming that he was tempted by the devil to say these lines. The narrator then reveals that the disputed verses actually came from the Archangel Gibreel.

The novel was banned in countries with huge Muslim communities, including India. The book was so controversial that Muslims around the world held demonstrations and burned copies of the book. Iran's spiritual leader at the time, Ayatollah Khomeini, placed him under a fatwa, or death sentence.

The Iranian government announced it would "neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie" in 1998 as a gesture to restore diplomatic relations with Britain. But hardliners have continued to reaffirm the fatwa.

Religious and political beliefs

Rushdie was raised as a Sunni Muslim, but claimed he was never religious. His novels often focus on religion and conflicts between faiths. He advocates a reform in Islam, stating in an interview that "Broad-mindedness is related to tolerance; open-mindedness is the sibling of peace."

The author also supported the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, signed the manifesto "Together Facing the New Totalitarianism", and criticized the wearing of the niqab, the veil which he considered as contributing to the oppression of women.

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