The Satanic Verses: 30 Years On (2019 TV Movie) User Reviews

Just Alright... the Podcast is Way, Way Better

[Better_TV · 7/10 · 26 May 2019]

This was fine. The filmmaker, a Muslim himself, makes no bones about the fact that he has a specific perspective on the fallout from the Salman Rushdie "Satanic Verses" fatwa affair - he has the stones to put that right in the documentary itself. You don't need to agree with him.

He speaks to a woman from the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, a former National Front guy, former jihadis, a guy who burned Rushdie's books during protests in Britain decades ago. There's some man-on-the-street interviews in Parliament Square as well. He gets some mild responses and some angry ones, which I think is what he was fishing for (better television, I guess).

Far, far stronger than this is the analogous BBC radio podcast "Fatwa," 10 episodes of 10 minutes each. It deals more with the history surrounding the Satanic Verses controversy, with the Muslim immigrant experience in Britain, radicalization, cultural isolation, racism, politics etc. It's far more interesting than this, which was produced by Vice Media - and, unfortunately, feels too much like one of their faux edgy shaky-cam YouTube videos.

Enjoyable but not a lot of depth!

[Thinker365 · 7/10 · 28 August 2022]

"All of us have to be really careful not to try and win position and praise by becoming what we think the white world wants us to be," Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. I wish the presenter (who seems very likeable) had been better able to challenge those he interviewed.

This becomes problematic because he never really gets to the heart of the matter, so the documentary only serves to highlight a strand of anti-intellectualism which shuts down discourse and debate.

Though the radio call-in on blasphemy and vox-pops at the end provide a bit of insight, I think the time would have been better spent hearing informed opinions (Muslims who perhaps had read the book) or moderating viewpoints (I know about it but it is not a book for me) if they exist.

As presented, on this matter, ideology and identity trumps intellect. I would have liked a part two in order to delve into this matter (as well as gauge the opinion of the parents and the public regarding the 'schoolyard game').

30 years on, some problems remain unsolved

[paul2001sw-1 · 6/10 · 16 May 2024]

Salman Rushdie's novel 'The Satanic Verses' is a wild, playful, book, but not especially disrepectful to religion; the "verses" it refers to are themselves derived from an Islamic tradition. But somehow the book came to serve as a touchstone for the anger of British Muslims about their treatment; then was denounced by the Ayatollah Khomeni, who pronounced a death setence on its author; and finally cost Rushie an eye last year when a lunatic attacked him. In this documentary, a younger British Muslim looks at what happened, and asks Muslims today what they think. Interestingly, many of those opposed to the book still defend their positions; and someone he meets in Bradford take the mere raising of the question as offensive in itself. Of course the book itself was an absurd target; but the feelings it still provokes shows the problems of accomodating religion (especially one traditionally practiced elsewhere) in a mostly secular (and partly racist) society.

Good luck british people

[pezevenchiul · 2/10 · 25 May 2020]

This cheap propaganda piece is a good view on a growing a part of british society you don't often see. It's two contradicting worlds colliding, or better said in conflict, and, unlike the asinine presenter, I won't put my bets on the western side.