Across the cultural and political worlds people debated this reawakened question of blasphemy. On both the political left and right there were those who believed that the novelist had transgressed the rules of courtesy. Among the high Tory right Lord Dacre (Hugh Trevor-Roper) told a newspaper, ‘I would not shed a tear if some British Muslims, deploring his manners, should waylay him in a dark street and seek to improve them.’9 The Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe, stressed on television that he himself had no love for The Satanic Verses and that it was rude about Britain. Others dug up earlier criticisms of Rushdie’s about Britain and concluded that chickens were coming home to roost. The Prince of Wales allegedly said in private that Rushdie deserved everything he got.10 Faith leaders, meanwhile, competed to mollify the Islamic Republic. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, said that he ‘understood the Muslims’ feelings’.11 The Chief Rabbi, Immanuel Jakobovits, said that ‘Both Mr Rushdie and the Ayatollah have abused freedom of speech.’12 There were similar pronouncements from the leadership of the Catholic Church and other denominations.

From the political left John le Carré declared that, ‘there is no law in life or nature that says great religions may be insulted with impunity’.13 And the Labour MP Bernie Grant – one of the first black MPs in the British House of Commons – told a meeting of fellow MPs that white people were trying to impose their values on the world and that although he didn’t agree with the Ayatollahs, Muslims in Iran should have the right to live their own lives. Besides which ‘burning books,’ he claimed ‘was not a big issue for blacks’.14