mumbai on february 14 1989 irans ayatollah khomeini presented salman rushdie a deadly valentine he issued a fatwa that called for the writer to be killed after the publication of rushdies fourth book the satanic verses which the cleric declared slandered the prophet the fatwa sent rushdie into hiding for ten years his japanese translator was murdered and his italian translator and norwegian publisher were seriously injured today marks the fatwas 20th anniversary and society has never been more polarised along religious axes is it possible for a satanic verses to be published todayno it cannot because it has a lot of stuff that is very offensive says zeenat shaukat ali a professor of islamic studies at st xaviers college rushdie has mixed fact and fiction which is unacceptable ali says she doesnt support the fatwa as she believes that to order an individuals execution is contrary to the principals of islam but she does believe that bans on literature considered offensive help prevent unnecessary violencethe threat of mob fury has made publishers wary of potentially offensive material it would be a rare publisher who would be willing to publish a book like that says urvashi butalia writer and one of the founders of zubaan books things are much worse today than they were thenamerican scholar james laine was targeted by a rightwing group after the publication of his book shivaji hindu king in islamic india in 2003 taslima nasrins career as a writer has been scarred by exile bans and violent agitations against her bookshistorian and writer ramachandra guha blames the sheer pusillanimity of our government for an environment in which frank opinions and serious scholarship risk being banned by governments wary of communal tensions is any religion so fragile that it will be threatened by one book says guha the author of india after gandhi is shivaji such a fragile hero that a book can undermine faith in himon one occasion 15 years ago butalia had second thoughts about publishing a book it was mauritian writer lindsey collens the rape of sita which was banned in mauritius in the novel collen comments on mauritiuss colonial past through the story of one woman i was concerned about the title butalia says it was a time of rising hindu fundamentalism she was spared from making a decision when the writer took it to another publisher after she won the commonwealth writers prize