“The Islamic Reformation has to begin here, with an acceptance that
all ideas, even sacred ones, must adapt to altered realities. ”

—Novelist and Indian-born Muslim Salman Rushdie, expressing his belief in the need for Islamic reform.

Writing his way into public scrutiny again, Rushdie’s upcoming book, Shalimar the Clown, will imagine the story of a Muslim boy who, under the guidance of a radical Muslim cleric, becomes a terrorist.

Rushdie was condemned in 1989 by Ayatollah Khomeini, the previous supreme spiritual leader of Iran, for alleged blasphemy in his book
The Satanic Verses; Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the author’s execution, and Rushdie was forced into hiding in the subsequent years.
  

Mimi Hanaoka