UKH

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002thf

anyone see it? I thought it was a very interesting exploration of something I’d been aware of at the time, but not of the detail and wider context. 

The interviews with people who had been involved in the demonstrations at the time were fascinating- and it’s something that clearly has power to provoke a strong response even after 30 years, judging by the interactions the presenter had in central Bradford

anyone here actually read it? 

See also very good Radio 4 podcast series called Fatwa. I have not read it but tried Midnight's Children and thought it was dross!

Yes Fatwa was excellent

I've read it and thought it was incomprehensible rubbish but perhaps it assumes a decent understanding of Islam which I lack. I seem to remember it rated quite highly on a most over rated books thread on here a few months back. 

I have a copy on the shelf, I’ve started it a couple of times, never got far in to it.

It was excellent . Presenter was very good. Well worth watching .

i did comment to my Mrs that in the demos in London with crowds of 80,000  there were no Muslim women protesters .

I read it but didn't think it was much good at the time. Magic realism is a bit of an acquired taste.

Also watched it and enjoyed it, found it quite balanced and we'll presented. 

For those that have read it- the presenter, whose approach was measured and calm overall, said something to the effect of it being to a degree knowingly provocative- did you get that sense from it?

I can't remember much about it to be honest.

Mohamed is definitely made out to be a bit of a git

I read it at the time, to see what the fuss was about. I found it hard work and pretentious with lots of incomprehensible bits that I couldn't be arsed to decipher. I've since tried to read a couple of other Rushdie books and felt the same way about them too.

One thing that did seem very clear was that it was deliberately provocative towards Muslims. There are passages in the book that he couldn't possibly have failed to realise would cause offense. I'm all for a bit of winding up religious extremists so I support him for it, but it did seem more a case of causing offence for the sake of it rather than a genuine work of art that some people found offensive  

Yes that’s interesting. They had short clips of Rushdie on the programme, not interviewed for it, it was library footage; but I didn’t warm to him. It certainly seems that very few people would have heard of it, never mind bought it, if it hadn’t been for the book burning. Shades of Father Ted’s protest against the Passion of St Tibulus, but with more firebombings. 

That was an interesting series although I missed the last two episodes, I'll have to try and catch up with them.

On a less than serious note, quite amusing was one of Rushdie's friends saying that when he heard about the issuing of a fatwa he didn't know what one was and couldn't understand why the Ayatolla was calling Salman a fat tw@t!

It was really good. I'm a bit of geek on these things from past work, so I know there is more to be told about the linkage between what was called "the Muslim Parliament", a British Muslim organisation and not a particularly big one from what I remember, and the Iranian government - and also how the Shia - Sunni divide played into it.

But overall it was really good programme.

Shia-Sunni aspect- the Bradford contributors are largely Pakistani heritage, so Sunni I thought- but the fatwa was from Iran so Shia- what was the sectarian angle...?

Don't keep us in suspense.

Edit: Can you suggest things to read or provide one or two links if it would take a long time to post about it on here?

This is all a bit hazy in my memory but IIRC there were definitely a few British Muslim activist who went begging to other countries to get a response particularly after they felt they were ignored here. So ultimately Khomenei probably would have never heard of the book if people here hadn't gone to the Iranian government saying "look! this is terrible isn't it!" On the Sunni-shia split; I think it was that in the UK people who fancied themselves as Muslim community leaders but who HADN'T protested against Rushdie saw the success of those who had, so criticised them by saying they had to go to a Shia country (Iran) to get support, and this made them suspicious. But Iranian moves like this always have to be seen in their efforts to claim a leadership role over Muslims, and particularly their strategic competition with Saudi.

I wrote a long article on the Danish Cartoon Crisis many years ago, and it was funny how much it paralleled the Rushdie affair.