From the Vault: The Satanic Verses

“The author of The Satanic Verses, a text written, edited, and published against Islam, against the Prophet of Islam, and against the Koran, along with all the editors and publishers aware of its contents, are condemned to capital punishment. I call on all valiant Muslims wherever they may be in the world to execute this sentence without delay, so that no one henceforth will dare insult the sacred beliefs of the Muslims.” ~Fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie on February 14, 1989 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

So exists to this day a standing, state-issued death warrant against Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, a highly controversial work that is the focus of this week’s episode of From the Vault. Almost immediately after its publishing in 1989, the book was banned by the governments of several countries around the world and Muslim leaders spoke out in unison. Protests erupted in many cities, things were burned, and people died. The Satanic Verses had very quickly become perhaps the most famously “banned” book of the last 50 years, and even today the bounty on Salmon Rushdie’s head stands at $2.8 million.

Although The Satanic Verses was never officially banned by the United States government, many bookstore owners chose to hold it from their shelves, a few did not; it was the cause of two book store firebombings in California. On that same day, Pacifica Radio’s KPFA in Berkeley had scheduled a panel to discuss the book- which they recorded and submitted to the Pacifica Radio Archives nearly twenty years ago. Today, we’ll hear excerpts from this enlightening discussion that encompass a variety of views on The Satanic Verses, and what should ultimately happen with the book. Andy Ross, one of the invited panel-members, was noticeably absent from the day’s discussion; as owner of one of the firebombed bookstores, he stayed home for safety reasons.

This wouldn’t be a good show if we didn’t share the original controversy… the second half of From the Vault will do just that, with help from Frank Beacham and Peggy Weber, who produced a dramatic radio reading of The Satanic Verses only two days after the bookstore firebombings. Pacifica Radio’s KPFK in Los Angeles proudly broadcast the reading in February 1989, within a month of the book’s debut, as a exercise in free speech and a reaffirmation of Pacifica Radio’s mission. From the Vault proudly presents excerpts of this dramatic reading, heard now for the first time since its original broadcast 18 years ago.