http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axxcq4Yt2Ck

Salman Rushdie is a British Indian novelist whose works include Midnight’s Children, Shalimar the Clown and Haroun and the Sea of Stories. In 1988, Rushdie released his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses. The Satanic Verses was considered controversial and sparked protests from Muslims in several countries. On February 14, 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a fatwa calling for his assassination. Rushdie was subsequently put under police protection by the British government and spent ten years in hiding. The decree has since been lifted. In this video, Salman Rushdie discusses what it was like to have to go into hiding during that time and what it was like to write about the ordeal decades later.

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Salman Rushdie Discusses The Fatwa Issued Against Him appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSUGI5MEYmg

Christopher Hitchens and Salman Rushdie, two close friends, play word games in front of a crowd and joke about the title of Hitchens' memoir, Hitch-22. Watch their non-stop banter with the duo exchanging anecdotes and even reciting limericks to one another. Hitchens died on December 15, 2011.

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Friends Hitchens and Salman Rushdie Entertain a Crowd Together appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypK1CwPVz1c

Salman Rushdie speaks to students at Emory University about his friendship with the oft-contentious Christopher Hitchens, who died on December 15, 2011. While Rushdie and Hitchens did not always agree on certain political issue, it never jeopardized their friendship. He begins with: "One of the things about being Christopher's friend is that you disagreed with him maybe 75% of the time…but he was very enjoyable to disagree with…"

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Salman Rushdie on Hitchens: "Christopher Loved Disagreement" appeared first on Witnify.