![]() ![]() The recent violence and killings in the Mideast remind us that the forces behind the reaction to "The Satanic Verses" remain just as powerful. Now that concept was compromised, if not in jeopardy. Her reaction was common and uncharacteristic of a business that was built on the concept of freedom. "The book isn't here and won't be anytime," one told me, then asked that I not use her name. In 1989, that world changed for the worst when Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini in his dying gasp leveled a fatwa, or death sentence, against novelist Salman Rushdie for writing "The Satanic Verses." Anybody connected with the publication or sale of the book was covered by the threat, so when I started calling bookstores to check on the supplies of Rushdie's novel, I sensed fear in the voices of the staffers. Authors were intelligent, publishers appreciated the attention and booksellers welcomed the free advertising. Covering the world of books as a newspaper reporter was an upbeat job. ![]()
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