Free Republic

Lets hold our horses here.Are you and others saying that the beheading was fake, as Aj Jeez insists?.Man, I may have to alter my belief system if that's true.I saw the clip, looked pretty real, as far as I am concerned. Similar to that video of the Russian soldier whom Chechn rebels beheaded.

Now I'M confused.

bttfl???

Biography: When the news came over the wire services on 14 February 1989 that a writer had been condemned to death, the whole thing seemed at first like a dreadful anachronism. But instead of a mystery which we could only comprehend through analogy - that of Inquisition victims burned at the stake - there was the face of a real man on the front pages of our newspapers and on our television screens. It was the face of a writer unknown to the general public, half English, half Indian, who stood out for his novel way of expressing a fascination with mixed origins and mixed lives. (Salmon, 7) Salman Rushdie was born in the year 1947. He was born in the country of India, and to be specific, the city of his birth was Bombay. His family had a middle class background. Salman Rushdie’s father was a business man who was educated at Cambridge University. Rushdie’s grandfather was an Urdu poet. In terms of religious life, the family was Muslim. When he was fourteen (14) years of age, Rushdie was sent to school in England to learn how to play the game Rugby. His family moved from India to Pakistan (Karachi) in the year 1964; this was not an easy move to make, as the Rushdie family really did not want to leave their native country of India. Rushdie studied at the King’s College which is part of Cambridge University. He graduated in the year 1968. Rushdie worked for a short time in the television industry in Pakistan. He also acted in a theater group. Between the years 1971 and 1981, Salman Rushdie at times worked as a freelance copywriter. Rushdie in other words has done more than just write. In the year 1975, Rushdie’s first novel, which is named Grimus was published. This is a work of science fiction, and draws from Rushdie’s heritage. The year 1981 saw Rushdie become an internationally known author with the publication of his work Midnight’s Children; this work won the Booker Prize in 1981, and this helped to secure the fame of Salman Rushdie. Rushdie’s next novel was Shame, and this was published in 1983. This brings us to Rushdie’s most famous (maybe the word infamous should be used) work. The Satanic Versus was Rushdie’s fourth (4th) novel. This novel won the Whitebread Award in the year 1988. The book was banned in South Africa and Rushdie’s native India. It is also because of this book that Salman Rushdie was ordered to be put to death by the Ayatollah Khomeini for the way in which he wrote on Islam. This is called fatwa in the Muslim tradition, and there was a reward for the execution of Rushdie, and that reward was one million (1,000,000) dollars. The fatwa also included the execution of the publisher of Rushdie’s book. In 1990, Rushdie wrote an essay that was titled "In Good Faith," and this essay was both an appeasement and an apology for The Satanic Verses. The result on the fatwa was the going underground of Rushdie for a period of several years that ended in the year 1998. IT was also in that year in which the new Ayatollah raised the bounty for Rushdie’s life to the sum of almost three-million (3,000,000) dollars (the actual sum was 2.8 million dollars). During his time in hiding, Rushdie continued to write. In the year 1989, Salman was named one of the twenty-five (25) most intriguing people in the September issue of People Magazine (Anonymous 5, 93). This is a very prestigious naming because it shows the influence that Rushdie had in that year. The reason this author made the list was his book, The Satanic Verses. Salman Rushdie was married twice (2). His first marriage took place in the year 1976, and it was in that year that Clarissa Luard became his wife. His second marriage took place in the year 1988, and this time he married an American writer by the name of Marianne Wiggins.

Recently, he married Padma Lakshmi, an Indian model

Muslims in India are enraged at New Delhi's decision to grant a visa to Salman Rushdie, the author of the controversial book, ``The Satanic Verses.'' A top Islamic cleric says that Muslims will not allow Rushdie to step on the Indian soil. Addressing Friday's gathering at India's largest Jama Masjid mosque in New Delhi, Syed Ahmad Bukhari said: ``Be prepared for any sacrifice. We would follow him everywhere. Even if we have to give our lives, we are ready.'' Criticizing India's ruling coalition led by Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party for granting a visa to Rushdie, Bukhari said, ``No one can tolerate a man who has attacked Islam and blasphemed the prophet.'' (Anonymous 3, UPI)

The BJP lost in India's General Elections '04, yesterday.

Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

Knopf Canada Copyright © 1997

Buy Satanic Verses at: • Amazon • Barnes & Noble.com • Books-A-Million Format:  Paperback Number of pages:  576 Publication date:  May 27, 1997 ISBN:  067697063X Inside Flap Just before dawn one winter's morning, a hijacked jetliner explodes above the English Channel. Through the falling debris, two men -- Gibreel Farishta, the biggest movie star in India, and Saladin Chamcha, an expatriate returning from his first visit to Bombay in fifteen years -- plummet from the sky. Washing up on the snow-covered sands of an English beach, they proceed through a series of metamorphoses, dreams and revelations. The Satanic Verses is a wonderfully erudite study of the evil and good entwined within the hearts of women and men, an epic journey of tears and laughter, served up by a writer at the height of his powers. Reviews "A glittering novelist -- one with startling imagination and intellectual resources, a master of perpetual storytelling." -- V.S. Pritchett, The New Yorker "A staggering achievement, brilliantly enjoyable." -- Nadine Gordimer "A masterpiece." -- Sunday Times "Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Voltaire's Candide, Sterne's Tristam Shandy.... Salman Rushdie, it seems to me, is very much a latter day member of their company." -- New York Times Book Review Table Of Contents I. The Angel Gibreel II. Mahound III. Ellowen Deeowen IV. Ayesha V. A City Visible but Unseen VI. Return to Jahilia VII. The Angel Azraeel VIII. The Parting of the Arabian Sea IX. A Wonderful Lamp Biographical Note Salman Rushdie is the author of seven novels, including The Satanic Verses, The Ground Beneath Her Feet and Midnight’s Children for which he won the Booker Prize and the “Booker of Bookers.”

Copyright © Knopf Canada • All right reserved. • ISBN: 067697063X Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. About Google Print - Publisher Information

The author Salman Rushdie is a known islamowhacker! His book, 'The Satanic Verses' is a must-read.