The Years of Writing Dangerously: Salman Rushdie and the Fatwa Twenty Years After

In this article I look back to the events that lead to Khomeini’s death-threat against Salman Rushdie and to those that followed in the next couple of years, examining the reactions of writers, intellectuals and Rusdhie himself in the light of both the political situation of the late Eighties, and the present day. Leading literary figures, politicians, philosophers, journalists as well as scholars, students, publishers, booksellers and ordinary people then taking the defence of Rushdie agreed that tolerance and respect for the diversity of faiths and beliefs could not be secured by the threat of criminal prosecution and punishment. On the contrary, freedom of expression and freedom of religion had to find a new accommodation, that could only be achieved through dialogue. The final aim of my article is, on the one hand, to see if – and how - this dialogue has been carried on in the last two decades. On the other, with reference to the pronouncements made by Rushdie since 1989, I examine how the issue of freedom of speech has been represented in his works after "Satanic Verses".