The Satanic Verses controversy, also known as the Rushdie Affair, was the heated reaction of some Muslims to the publication of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses, in the United Kingdom in 1988, which was inspired in part by the life of Muhammad. Many Muslims accused Rushdie of blasphemy or unbelief and in 1989 the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie. Numerous killings, attempted killings, and bombings resulted in response to the novel.The Iranian government backed the fatwa against Rushdie until 1998, when the succeeding government of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said it no longer supported the killing of Rushdie. However, the fatwa remains in place.The issue was said to have divided "Muslims from Westerners along the fault line of culture," and to have pitted a core Western value of freedom of expressionthat no one "should be killed, or face a serious threat of being killed, for what they say or write"against the view of many Muslims that no one should be free to "insult and malign Muslims" by disparaging the "honour of the Prophet". English writer Hanif Kureishi called the fatwa "one of the most significant events in postwar literary history".

Ayatollah (UK: or US: ; Persian: آیت‌الله, romanized: āyatollāh) is an Honorary for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy in Iran and Iraq that came into widespread usage in the 20th century.