Salman Rushdie has been stabbed at a New York lecture and could lose sight in one eye. The motivation behind the attack may be more than 30 years old. In 1989 the Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini condemned Rushdie to death via Fatwah due to the ‘blasphemous’ nature of his book: The Satanic Verses.  

We’re joined by Vijay Mishra, Emeritus Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Murdoch University in Perth to look into why Rushdie is so controversial among those of the Muslim faith. 

What was it about the Satanic Verses that made it so controversial, and why has Salman Rushdie been under a Fatwah since 1989?

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