What was it about the satanic verses that rajjed the muslims so much?

Question

I haven't read the book. Please do not answer by saying "It insulted the prophet mohammed". How did it insult the prophet mohammed?

Answer 1

Muslims believe that the Quran is perfect. Rushdie wrote that some verses were taken out of the Quran, because Muhammad (pbuh) had supposedly said that they came from Satan. In lay terms, Rushdie claimed that the Quran is not perfect.

So many Muslims were outraged by this and wanted him to die, blah, blah, blah. I would like to point out that not all Muslims want him to die for this. Yes, we are upset but we shrug it off and go on with our daily lives.

However, now this man who has "insulted" the foundation of a religion by claiming that their holy book has flaws was knighted in England despite Islam being the second largest religion in England.

Now, imagine this scenario. A man wrote that the Bible is incorrect and has satanic verses. Would England knight this man for saying this? No.

I just love how people generalize and say that all Muslims want this Rushdie guy dead. No, that is not true at all. I just shrug this guy off. Let him say whatever he wants to say. It will never take away my faith.

Answer 2

Muslims believe that the Quar-an was 'dictated' to the Prophet Mohamed by Alah (God). The Quaran is actually the word of God effectively.

Rusdies book is similar to the Da Vinci Code, in that it takes an existing religious controversy and makes a fictional story out of it. The controversy of in this case is the Satanic Verses, a theory that a small portion of the Quar-an is not the word of God, but rather text that Mohamed felt he had to write in order to unify rival reglious factions under Islam. These verses where 'dropped' from the Quaran (if they ever existed at all) and are the subject of speculation, see here for example:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_Verses

Rusdies book takes the form of a parody, Mohamed is not named but is represented by a character called Mamood (maybe I have spelled it wrong). The whole book has a very flowery and surealistic flavour to it.

Basically, the Mamood character is writing a relious text and thinks he is writing the words of God. However he is actually being whispered to by the devil.

Rushdei is mocking religion generally, but pointing out how easy it is for a religious message to be corrupted, but he is also specifically picking out Islam. To many Muslims this is the ultimate insult, the suggestion that Islam is not a valid faith and is actually the work of the devil.

The Satanic Verses is not light reading due to Rusdies unusual style of writing. If you are interested in the issues contained in the book, you may want to give these notes a try:-
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/anglophone/satanic_verses.

In conclusion, the Satanic Verses insulted the Prophet Mohamed by implying that he was a fool who wrote the words of the devil down thinking they were God's. It also implies that Islam is not a valid religion. It should be noted that the Satanic Verses appears to criticise religion generally, but Islam takes most of the stick.

Answer 3

The book suggests that Mohammed was created Allah in a cave and didn't receive any vision from Allah. That Isiam is a scam. It is just like saying that Jesus doesn't exist. That's what many Muslims are upset about.

Answer 4

The real satanic verses were recorded by the 4 most eminent scribes at the time. Muhammed spoke of the daughters of allah. HE was referring to the moon-god allah, that his tribe (the queresh) worshipped. The moon-god allah had 3 daughters. This infers that muslims still worship the moon-god allah.

These verses were in the koran, just google satanic verses, there's heaps on it, but no muslim will agree with it, most haven'e even heard of them.

Answer 5

I suppose this could be compared to Joseph Smith, saying that the holy bible is not translated correctly, but he was given the so called corrections in the book of morman, by a couple of angels. Christians are taught to follow Jesus, to love, so no off with his head there!

Answer 6

It let out the dirty secret of Islam. Mohammed admitted that there were certain scriptures that were inspired by satan. This is in the Koran. Which leads every intelligent person to say maybe all the rest were too.

Answer 7

Do they ever need an excuse. They seem to get wound up by every little thing and then the world is meant to bow down to them. They can sod off.

Well done Salmon Rushdi!

Answer 8

Satanic verses means the destructive verses. Those verses that destroy Gods Creation.

Answer 9

It is like the islamic DiVinci Code....but more boring....and I fell asleep during the Davinci Code

Answer 10

because he told the "truth",which is something that the majority of muslims are not used to.