Satanic Verses - a brief analysis

In 1988, Salman Rushdie's fiction novel, Satanic Verses, was given awards for novel of the year in the UK.

As a novel, it is evident that the author is bitter about the Islamic world and its victories over the crusaders. For example, the satanic character is named after Saladin, a famous Islamic mujahid who defeated the crusaders and led Muslims to victory.

In addition, the prostitutes are given Islamic names in the story. This makes the novel not too different from any other British novel or Western work of its time, as Disney's Aladdin did the same thing. The key difference here was, of course, Rushdie decided to attack the Ayatollah, who responded with a fatwa once he had the political authority to respond. Thus, the impact on Rushdie's life was a political one, and similar things have happened to people who have burned or defaced the US flag (See: Emily Lance and her death threats, 4th of July), or kneeled during the anthem (See: Kapernick death threats)

The reason for the prostitutes being given Islamic names is similar to the reason why US Gen McMaster showed photos of Afghan girls in miniskirts to Trump to get him to maintain the occupation, why photos of Iran under the Shah always focus on naked women, why the UAE/Israel are seen as "modern" or "civilized" nations for having nakedness on their beaches in spite of committing many human rights abuses, and it is also closely related to the gang rape/killings of Iraqi girls as young as 14, possibly younger (See: Mahmudiya rape and killings).

The racism in the novel makes it emblematic of the British empire, which is why the British have been obsessed with defending that novel as if it is so great. That is because, to them, it is a great novel. To the civilized world, it is the same propaganda which plunged Europe into several wars of white supremacy, which they turned into world wars due to their subjugation of the world. It is also similar to the propaganda released during the crusades.

For example, the book is full of racial slurs like "Paki", only Rushdie will spell it as "Packy". There are various scenes involving immigration, and the officers humiliating the Salahuddin character by telling him he's merely a "packy" trying hard to be British. Again, this is normal behavior I've personally witnessed from British people, both white and brown.

Here is a passage of interest:

"Also -- for there had been more than a few migrants aboard, yes,
quite a quantity of wives who had been grilled by reasonable, doing-their-
job officials about the length of and distinguishing moles upon their
husbands' genitalia, a sufficiency of children upon whose legitimacy the

British Government had cast its everreasonable doubts -- mingling with the
remnants of the plane, equally fragmented, equally absurd, there floated the
debris of the soul, broken memories, sloughed-off selves, severed
mothertongues "

The story, along with most of European literature, is obsessed with the fertility, masculinity, and genitalia of Muslim men. This is because Europeans have always been afraid, due to Darwin's theories, that they will be replaced by more potent and dominant races. However, most of Darwin's works were pseudo-scientific garbage, and the British merely exaggerated their status just because Darwin was white.

In summary, or the tl;dr, is that it is just like any other garbage the Western world has produced. However, because it led to the Ayatollah in Iran publishing a fatwa against him, the Western world decided that this makes him a martyr for some reason. This mentality does not make sense, as many people die or are attacked for the content of their speech, and not all of them have ideas worth listening to, so they are not always martyrs.

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from Islam https://ift.tt/3DQXfZB