Explainer-The enduring impact of fatwas

FILE PHOTO: Author Salman Rushdie gestures during a news conference before the presentation of his latest book 'Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights' at the Niemeyer Center in Aviles, northern Spain, October 7, 2015. REUTERS/Eloy Alonso

(Reuters) - The 1989 fatwa imposed by Iran's late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on Salman Rushdie for his novel “the Satanic Verses” has haunted many liberal novelists and thinkers whose writings were also seen as insulting to Islam and the Prophet Mohammad.

The attempt on Rushdie's life in New York on Friday is not an isolated incident. Novelists, academics and journalists -- particularly in the Middle East -- who dared criticise or question Islamic beliefs have faced similar threats or condemnation from religious figures.