In 1988 Salman Rushdie published the novel The Satanic Verses, which contains adventures that depict a character modeled on the Prophet Muhammad. The book drew criticism from Muslim community leaders in Britain who considered its fanciful and satiric use of Islam blasphemous. In 1989 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran, issued a fatwa (legal opinion) against Rushdie. A bounty was offered to anyone who would execute Rushdie, and he lived in seclusion for a decade. In 1998 the Iranian government announced that it would no longer seek to enforce its fatwa against Rushdie. He recounted his experience in the third-person memoir Joseph Anton (2012); its title refers to an alias he adopted while in seclusion.
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