ABSTRACT
According to Fred Halliday, the violent reactions to British novelist Salman Rushdie's book have spawned the public myth that the novel really was blasphemous and offensive to Muslims, which is why Ayatollah Khomeini issued his fatwa. First, Rushdie did not invent a blasphemous story but was commenting on a well-known report about the Prophet's satanic temptation contained in, among other sources, al-Tabari's The History of the Messengers and the Kings. Secondly, blasphemy' in Christian terminology means offensive speech against God, which Rushdie did not engage in. Thirdly, Khomeini did not issue a fatwa but a hukm that Rushdie was an unbeliever. Fourthly, many intellectuals and authors in Muslim-majority countries defended the principle of freedom of expression, and thus Rushdie's right to publish, so Khomeini's judgment cannot be seen to express the feelings of all Muslims. The broadest context used to frame the Satanic Verses controversy is what Peter Beyer calls global society.
