Asian Literature

The Satanic Verse

Salman Rushdie

The Satanic Verse is a novel that advertises apostasy wherein a person will abandon a previous loyalty to the religion that the person believed in. On the novel, it criticizes the teachings of Islam for containing too many rules & seeking to control every aspect of everyday life. Also, there is a part on the novel where Rushdie referred Muhammad “a conjuror”, “a magician” & “a false prophet”. With that, it makes the Muslims angry since there is a person who is criticizing their Islam beliefs. Muslims were known for being dedicated to their religion and have a strong personality. The Islam community requested Fatwa (death sentence) to the author of the novel and to ban the book to be read and published.

            When threats become seriously alarming, Rushdie was still strong in facing the situation. He is still willing to do interviews and face the people. With this, it affects not just his physical safety but also the safety of his family especially his son. It also affects his reputation as an author. Rushdie didn’t write that satanic verses intentionally we think that the Muslin won’t forgive and forget it, because even though it is not intentional, he just offended them.

            The author might have used third person instead of the first person point-of-view because writers fear editors will think their work is fictionalized, offers memoirists a different and perhaps keener perspective on themselves: third person in non-fiction is a distancing perspective. It’s non-chronological and uses different memoirists’ tools.

            This is what we have learned from Rushdie and why we thought of him writing the memoir. In every decision we make you take the responsibilities what will be the results. His revelations are shocking because even though he is sentenced to death, he didn’t take any reactions because he is ready to face the consequence. Also in every action/decision we make we should think wisely if we will commit sin or we could step on others. We think that he wrote these memoirs for us to be aware and awaken that in writing, you should know your limitations and consider others or should I say look at each side. For us to be strong enough and stand our side.