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Salman Rushdie speaks in Marin
By Caitlin Prendiville
Special to AsianWeek
The Book Passage in Corte Madera is crammed with more than 200 people, eagerly awaiting the arrival of controversial Indian British author, Salman Rushdie. Behind the reserved seats, the people crowd in the doorway, crouch on the aisles and peer in through the windows to catch a glimpse of the writer.
The audience cheers and applauds as Rushdie is introduced. His warm smile soothes the crowd, washing away any anxiety surrounding the man who had been in hiding for most of the 1990s. After Rushdie published The Satanic Verses in 1988, the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, condemning Rushdie to death for alleged blasphemous references to the prophet, Mohammed. But the threat has passed — it seems that Islamic militants have bigger fish to fry these days — and there were no signs of bodyguards at the reading...
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