The Satanic Verses was a resounding success, once published in 1988, winning the Whitbread Prize for Novel of the Year. In Islamic communities, the novel immediately became controversial. Rushdie was accused of abusing freedom of speech. In October 1988, letters and phone calls arrived at Viking Penguin from Muslims, angry at the book and wanting it removed. Thus, during the month, the importation of the book was banned in India, although possession of the book does not constitute a criminal offense. In November 1988, it was also banned in Bangladesh, Sudan and South Africa. In December 1988, it was also banned in Sri Lanka. In March 1989, the book was banned in Kenya, Thailand, Tanzania, Indonesia, Singapore and Venezuela. In early March 1989, the US FBI was informed of 78 threats against bookstores selling the book. In New York, the offices of the community newspaper The Riverdale Press were destroyed by a bombing, in retaliation for an editorial defending the right to read the novel. Violence against bookstores has continued for the longest in the United Kingdom. Two large bookstores in Charring Cross Road, London, were blown up, there were explosions in the town of High Wycombe and again in London on the Kings Road, among other attacks. However, the most extreme response was the fatwā issued by the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, February 14, 1989. The fatwā called for the death of Rushdie and his publishers. Although Khomeini did not give a legal reason for this judgment, it was reportedly based on the ninth chapter of the Quran, At-Tawba, verse 61: "Some of them injured the prophet by saying: 'He is all hearing.” !' Say: “It is better for you if he listens to you. He believes in God and trusts middle of paper...can we learn from the story? » [Rushdie 1988b: A27] To read such a powerful text simply in terms of religious blasphemy is an injustice to literature. Rushdie explained how fiction, although it may draw its ideas and roots from canons like religion, it connects with the imagination of novelists and what is produced from it. should not be condemned, but considered in terms of the novelist's creativity. In an age of free speech and a modern, liberalized society, the novelist should not be constrained by the limitations of religion, for literature and science fill the pools of religion. Let go. Unfortunately, Rushdie's Verses will be remembered more for the controversy and uproar it caused than for the sheer genius of magical realism that was this work. However, this very reaction illustrates the magnanimity of the novel and the sheer genius of Notorious. the evasive Salman Rushdie.