Which Salman Rushdie novel was banned in many countries for alleged blasphemy?

The Salman Rushdie novel banned in many countries for alleged blasphemy is The Satanic Verses.

Published in 1988, the novel draws on the life of Muhammad, immigrant experience, dreams, religious history, and political conflict. Its title refers to a disputed tradition concerning verses associated with three pre-Islamic Meccan goddesses: Allāt, al-ʿUzzā, and Manāt. Rushdie’s treatment of these subjects led some Muslim authorities and communities to condemn the book as blasphemous.

India banned the importation of the novel in 1988, and Pakistan and several other countries also prohibited it. In February 1989, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death. The resulting controversy became known as the Rushdie affair and raised enduring questions about censorship, freedom of expression, religious offense, and state power.

The Satanic Verses was not merely a forbidden religious text: it was also a formally ambitious work of magical realism about migration, identity, cultural displacement, and divided selves. It was a finalist for the 1988 Booker Prize and won the Whitbread Award for Novel of the Year.