It was 20 years ago this month that Ayatollah Khomeini pronounced his fatwa on Salman Rushdie. “I inform all zealous Muslims of the world”, he proclaimed, “that the author of the book entitled The Satanic Verses . . . and all those involved in its publication who were aware of its contents, are sentenced to death. This was not just a brutally shocking act that forced Rushdie into hiding for almost a decade; it also helped to transform the character of British society. The Rushdie affair was the moment at which a new Islam dramatically announced itself as a political force — and the moment when Britain realised that it was facing a new kind of social conflict. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article5626683.ece