Indian born British writer. Salman has become even better known as an international issue than as a novelist, due to the storm of protest, which erupted in the Muslim world over his novel The Satanic Verses (1988). The Satanic Verses is devoted to examining issues of cultural alienation among emigrants from the subcontinent. The novel is blasphemous and contains some dream-like scenes, including moments of satire on the Qur'an, which were the cause of the fury in the Muslim world. Ayatullah Khomeini took the lead to issue a Fatwa, the punishment of which was death in Islam. The Fatwa raised uproar in governments and media in the West. The West was waiting for yet another opportunity to vilify and condemn Ayatullah Khomeini's Islamic revolution on the ground of 'human rights'. The United Sates of America applied diplomatic and trade sanctions against Iran. The Fatwa forced Salman Rushdie to go in hiding for fear of his life, from 1989 to 1998, at a cost about £1m a year for his protection. Salman's second novel, Midnight's Children, brought recognition; Booker's prize in 1981 and the Booker of Bookers in 1993. The novel is magical journey through the historical experience of India and Pakistan between partition and the Seventies. It was seen as an apogee of Indian writing in English, and elevated Rushdie to the status of a kind of spokesman for the Third World - a position which later made him all too visible and vulnerable. Salman's 2001 novel 'Fury' features a character so beautiful that she can stop traffic. His most recent novel, 'Shalimar the Clown' was nominated for the Whitbread award. In 2008, he won an award called the Best of the Booker to mark the 40th year of the Booker prize and was knighted Sir by Her Majesty the Queen. Salman Rushdie was born into an Indian Muslim business family of Kashmiri origin was educated in Britain. Closest thing to a literary rock star, Salman has been living in New York since 2000.