Jon, Jeri,

thats the documentery I was talking about. Maybe a World in Action special? It was setup like a courtroom with lots of chattering class authors and IMO Yusaf Islam did himself and his new religion no favours when he made the remarks he did. I think he was ill-used by the programme makers, but more fool him for getting involved, he did know thw power and pitfalls of the media.

At the time the fatwa was declared on Rushdie, most folk didn't really know what it meant, but when books were being burned in the street (book burning fills me with horror) bookshop staff being threatened, shops being firebombed, a translator was murdered and so on. Looking back it does seem to have been a turning point.

IMO Rushdies book was a poor thing, not a patch on 'Midnights Children' and I did suspect he was trying to cause an uproar by writing the 'Satanic Verses'. Some of the Muslin community were outraged that the blasphemy laws in this country didn't apply to their religion and it may have been better if they had applied to Islam and the dispute could have been tested in court. IIRC one of the radical Muslim demands was for a change to the blasphemy laws.

fx