ABSTRACT
Taboo Fundamentalist Muslims monitor closely the portrayal of their religion in the Western media. Taboos pertaining to Islam are vibrantly alive in all countries with substantial Muslim populations. Lapsed Muslims cannot express their views, much less are non-Muslims allowed to reveal antagonistic feelings about Islam. The response to anything which might deride Islam stems from a set of constraints so strong, it is almost impossible to convey the intensity of feeling to a Westerner. The Nature of Fiction The fundamentalist Muslim reaction to The Satanic Verses also highlighted some unusual notions about the nature of fiction. Muslim critics complained that Rushdie had not told the truth, as though his highly elaborated account was intended exactly to recapitulate Islamic history. The Kuwaiti government found Rushdie guilty of veering off from objectivity and scientific research another peculiar accusation against a novel.
