* HarsherInHindsight: Regarding the infamous ''fatwa'' associated with the novel, which still stands today. In 2022, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabbing_of_Salman_Rushdie Rushdie was attacked]] by someone in New York claiming to act under the ''fatwa'' while giving a talk at the Chautauqua Institution. He very nearly died. In the end, the attack left him permanently blind in one eye, and reignited debate over freedom of speech and of expression in relation to the novel, which has been raging since 1989.
* JustHereForGodzilla: It's a very long book, most of it is set in 1980s London, but most readers who read the book, come for the historical setting in Jahilia, which was the source of controversy. This section comprises at best 120-130 pages of a 700-odd page book.
* MainstreamObscurity: All everyone knows about the book is the controversy but few are aware about the story, the plot, the characters or the narrative style of the book. In ''really'' bad cases people might even think it's meant as a ''nonfictional'' take on Islam.
* MisaimedFandom: Given the stabbing incident with Rushdie over the Satanic Verses controversy, many Hindu nationalists on twitter have come to support Rushdie and the book without realizing that Rushdie himself is vehemently against the BJP and the RSS.
* NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity:
** In the weeks following the fatwa, the novel shot to the top of bestseller lists worldwide, ultimately earning Rushdie approximately ''$2,000,000'' in its first year of publication alone (about $4,000,000 today).
** After Rushdie himself was stabbed on August 12, 2022, just before he was about to give a public lecture, his books charted on Creator/{{Amazon}} by the following afternoon.
* OffendingTheCreatorsOwn: A major reason why this book caused such an upset and backlash.
** Rushdie had identified himself as an atheist before the book but he was still considered a Muslim-origin author even by religious groups. His previous books had criticized corrupt political leaders in India and Pakistan and featured characters who grew up in Muslim communities. He had also worked in social causes in Britian dedicated to eroding discrimination faced by immigrants based on their skin and religion. When the book came out, Rushdie received rebukes and criticism from many groups and individuals who had formerly considered him one of their own, and the fatwa was essentially intended to mark him as CategoryTraitor.
** Rushdie, in addition to being raised in a liberal Muslim family, had also studied history in Cambridge and heavily researched the origins of Islam. The fact that Rushdie's own depiction of the Prophet is highly respectful and that he feels that Islam had a progressive quality at its roots, didn't filter down to the large number of protesters either, though the book was defended by a number of Middle Eastern authors in Egypt, Palestine and Lebanon who wrote a book of critical essays discussing the idiosyncratic depiction of religion in the book.
* OvershadowedByControversy: This book is known primarily for the fatwa, not for its content.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: It is most definitely meant to be symbolic and not merely one symbol, but multiple symbols at the same time. The subject is, what does "Satanic" or "Profane" culture really mean in the late 20th Century?
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