Blasphemy

1989 was a turning point for many reasons and not just in Eastern Europe. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, condemned Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses and demanded that the government expand the Blasphemy Act to cover other religions, including Islam. But was it blasphemous even from a Muslim point of view? Reza Aslan , the Iranian-born American Muslim writer, thinks the passages about the satanic verses 'are perfectly in line' with many traditional commentators on the Koran.

“I had an argument with Prince Charles at a small dinner party. He said—very typically, it seems to me—‘I’m sorry, but if someone insults someone else’s deepest convictions, well then,’ blah blah blah . . ." Martin Amis

Auberon Waugh, whom I thought a great bore in print (charming in real life), constantly repeated that the British Council in Rawalpindi was burnt down because in an article in which he had said that a sort of baggy khaki trousers worn by some Muslim men were known by British soldiers as 'Allah catchers'. Before 1989 that story didn't seem memorable but did seem slightly amusing. Waugh got fired by the Times for that.