I was watching today a BBC documentary on the twentieth anniversary of the Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie and a number of others involved in publishing the Satanic Verses.
I raise the issue because it seems to touch upon and yet be distinct from a couple other threads that are attracting some interest at the moment.
A couple questions that might start the ball rolling;
How many people have read The Satanic Verses?
Is the Fatwa, though sort of retracted, still valid for Muslims?
Are the issues surrounding free speech as relevant now as they were in 1989?
To these I would answer, Yes - though nearly twenty years ago and as a result of the controversy, I have no idea, and absolutely.
The BBC documentary has been posted on Youtube: