BPC Bulletin: 30th Anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini's Fatwa

News Reports and Commentary Selected by Franklin Carter of the Book and Periodical Council’s Freedom of Expression Committee

This year, February 14 is the 30th anniversary of the day when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran ordered the death of author Salman Rushdie and his publishing associates for producing The Satanic Verses.

REPORTAGE

On March 7, 1989, Eric Malling of The Fifth Estate reported the controversy.

Video length: 10 minutes, 29 seconds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bchuQDVU2RQ

COMMENTARY

In the Los Angeles Review of Books, Kevin Blankinship writes:
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/rushdies-deal-with-the-devil/

In The Guardian, Kenan Malik writes:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/29/satanic-verses-sowed-seeds-of-rift-grown-ever-wider

INTERVIEW

Mr. Rushdie needed police protection and hid from assassins for approximately a decade, but today he no longer feels threatened.

On September 28, 2017, Paula Marantz Cohen interviewed Mr. Rushdie at Drexel University in Philadelphia. She began by asking him about the fatwa and his safety. Mr. Rushdie said that he had felt safe for the last two decades.

Interview length: 26 minutes, 46 seconds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ELBb9ZgPXA

The Book and Periodical Council was formed in 1975 as the Book and Periodical Development Council to provide a venue for members to discuss industry issues, address mutual concerns and undertake projects for the benefit of Canadian writing and publishing.