Let me say at once that, like all the Muslims I know, I do not support the fatwah on Salman Rushdie. This does not mean, however, that I believe that he was right to publish The Satanic Verses. Of course, he had the right to publish, but was he right to do so?
For us Muslims, this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Rushdie affair: 1988 was the year The Satanic Verses was published in this country. For liberals, the anniversary dates from January 1989, when the book was burnt in Bradford, followed by Ayatollah Khomeini imposing a fatwah on 14th February. In this small gap lies the gulf between our perceptions.
Both sides would agree that the crisis was one of the most significant events in modern British life. It was a wake-up call for all of us. Some heard the tolling of church bells; some, the call of the muezzin; others, the resonant words of Voltaire. Most of us had to confront what it means to inhabit what we (too easily) call a multicultural society.
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