Banned Books: The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie



Two men fell thirty thousand feet in the air, landed in the English Channel and were found washed up on the beach. Their plane, the Bostan, had exploded in flight, the act of a terrorist group that had taken the plane hostage. Gibreel Farishta was the famous Indian actor that had vanished and begin living his life in the silent shadow. He was on the way to the woman he loved when his flight was hijacked. Saladin Chamcha was the lesser known voice over actor that was desperately trying to leave his family and past behind. They fell together, one singing songs while the other was desperately flapping his arms trying to save his life. Their falls would end with transformations for both, one into an angel of God, the other a representation of evil.
Where to begin? This book was all over the place. In the first hundred pages of this novel, I was just trying to wrap my head around what was going on. Here we have an actor singing as he falls to his death, even though he believes (correctly) that it’s really his rebirth? And what’s with the other guy, the other Indian actor, who seemingly tries to adopt a new life and identity away from his Indian home? All of these questions are answered throughout the pages of the novel but I’m not sure how satisfying I found it. I can hardly adequately explain what happened because everything feels like it would either be a spoiler or just cause confusion. There was a lot going on in this novel. Too much going on in this novel. I found myself distracted by half of this novel and incredibly moved by other parts. It was trying and difficult to invest myself in this novel. Did I do it? Yes but I’m not sure how to summarize it so I won’t. The aforementioned will be as good as it gets. (In my opinion this novel simply took the longest, winding road imaginable to express itself.)
Now one thing that must be said because it weighs very heavily on the reasons why this novel has been banned is the religious context of this book. I am not well versed on the Quran but the religious tones of this novel are obvious throughout the pages. Even though this wasn’t an all-out battle between good and evil, it definitely presented different aspects of faith, representations of that faith, expressions of that faith and completely turning away from said faith. The Satanic Verses has been banned in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Somalia, Sudan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Qatar, Indonesia, South Africa and India because of its criticism of Islam. Riots have happened because of this book where people have lost their lives. It was even considered a crime to own or read this book in Venezuela, with a penalty of 15 months imprisonment. Translations of this book has caused serious injury and death to those who have translated it. Now, The Satanic Verses definitely discussed Islam and I’m sure it challenged many people’s views but this is as extreme as it gets. Nothing else I’ve read as part of this years banned book theme has come close to the repercussions I am seeing here. I don’t think Rushdie wrote this novel intending to piss people off but it seems as if he did it masterfully. Most people don’t like to have their faith tested and would see this novel as blasphemous but I can’t imagine entire countries being so outraged that they have banned this novel and made it a crime. I find that to be extremely absurd.


Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course top 100 Novels of the 20th Century

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