Who is Salman Rushdie?
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Biographical Information
• Salman Rushdie was
born in Bombay, India
in 1947
• He went to college in
Cambridge, England
and stayed in England
to start a career in
advertising
• He became a full-time
writer when he
published his first
book in 1975
• His first successful
book was called
Midnight’s Children
and came out in 1980
Rushdie has written many books
•
•
•
•
•
•
Grimus (1975)
Midnight's Children
(1980)
Shame (1983)
The Jaguar Smile: A
Nicaraguan Journey
(1987)
The Satanic Verses
(1989)
Haroun and the Sea of
Stories (1990)
Many, Many Books
• East, West (1994)
• The Moor's Last Sigh (1995)
• The Ground Beneath Her
Feet (1999)
• Fury (2001)
• Step Across This Line:
Collected Nonfiction 19922002 (2002)
• Shalimar the Clown (2005)
Rushdie’s greatest challenge…
• The publication of The Satanic Verses in 1989
caused a HUGE controversy
• Many people found Rushdie’s depiction of the
prophet Muhammad--a very important figure in
Islam--to be disrespectful
• When Rushdie refused to apologize, many took
actions against him…
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India BANNED the book
• Selling it was
illegal
• Even owning a
copy was against
the law
• Many copies
were burned
publicly
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These countries also banned it:
• South Africa
• Pakistan
• Bangladesh
• Egypt
• Saudi Arabia
• Indonesia
• Somalia
• Sudan
But the biggest reaction came
from Iran…
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Iran issued a fatwa against
Salman Rushdie
• A fatwa is a religious order from one of the
Muslim clerics who are in charge in many
Middle Eastern countries.
• The order against Rushdie claimed that his
blasphemy in The Satanic Verses was
worthy of execution.
• A $3 million bounty was placed on his head.
Rushdie went to the
British government for protection
• While in England, he continued to write.
• Perhaps in response to the fatwa, he wrote a
children’s book. On the surface, at least, this was a
non-controversial idea.
• Haroun and the Sea of Stories deals with the
danger of storytelling, though. And this is a
concept that Rushdie knows better than most.
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Rushdie is unquestionably a
tremendous writer.
• His awards include
the Booker Prize for
best novel of the year
(Midnight’s
Children) and the
Writer’s Guild
Award for Best
Children’s Book
(Haroun and the Sea
of Stories)
• He now lives in New
York City with his
fourth wife.
• He remains an active
writer and critic.
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