Reading 'Satanic Verses' legal". The Times of India. 25 January 2012. Archived from the original on 29 April 2013. For most of the book I was engaged almost entirely through intellectual curiosity and morbid fascination. I didn't particularly like the characters, I wasn't emotionally bound to them. It's not that kind of book. Yes Iago too was once a man. What twists of fate made him evil incarnate? He sets out his prime motif: The question that’s asked here remains as large as ever it was: which is, the nature of evil, how it’s born, why it grows, how it takes unilateral possession of a many-sided human soul.

Death to all those that oppose *freedom! Well not death, nah, not that, just shut up already and go and moan to your friends and family like everyone else would. The rest of this review has very little to do with The Satanic Verses but it does have to do with Rushdie:

In total, Rushdie’s books sold 3,744 copies in the week ending 20 August, up 236%, or 2,629 copies, on the previous week. The Satanic Verses is as important in my body of work as any of my other books,” he said. He recanted his 1990 claim to embrace Islam, admitting he had said it to get the fatwa lifted. Asked if he was a Muslim, he replied: “I am happy to say that I am not.” Salman Rushdie: Satanic Verses 'would not be published today' ". BBC News. BBC. 17 September 2012 . Retrieved 17 September 2012. So there I was, actually writing the Book, or rewriting, anyway, polluting the word of God with my own profane language. But good heavens, if my poor words could not be distinguished from the Revelation of God’s own Messenger, then what did that mean? For me, the main idea of this novel is learning to understand that one must create one’s own ideas. If you will notice, all the facets and interwoven tales are delved in problems when the characters place their life, their ideas on nationalism, faith, someone they want to be like, someone they love, on political beliefs, on destiny, on goodwill, on what everybody does. We are busy with these worldviews that we then ignore the question “What are my own ideas?” “Who am I apart from these things not of my own?”

Notes for Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses". Archived from the original on 20 November 2000 . Retrieved 5 August 2015. In the process, every insinuated implication in the play is to be played out in this story - Cassio does sleep with Iago's wife, Iago is madly lustful of Desdemona, Othello is a deserving victim of directed revenge for very real ills and Iago needs no invented or unbelievable reasons for his actions. He is justified. It was inevitable. Rushdie’s works in general are masterpieces, and this one is one of those at the top, only behind “Midnight’s Children”. Hence, it should be thoroughly read an explored. Have fun! Rushdie expressed relief at the assurances offered by Khatami’s government, and said he had no regrets over his book, even after spending a decade in hiding.Harold Bloom (2003). Introduction to Bloom's Modern Critical Views: Salman Rushdie. Chelsea House Publishers. Despite a conciliatory statement by Iran in 1998, and Rushdie's declaration that he would stop living in hiding, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported in 2006 that the fatwa would remain in place permanently since fatawa can only be rescinded by the person who first issued them, and Khomeini had since died. [22] Violence, assassinations, and attempted murders [ edit ]