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Hello and welcome to Marshall Matters with me, Winston Marshall, at the Spectator

Offices in London.

So I thought freedom of speech was a problem in the music industry when last year I was

forced to apologise and take a leave of absence from my band, Mumford & Sons, before

deciding to quit

because I read a book about far-left extremism in the United States. Well, it turns out

there's something more perilous than reading a book, that's writing a book. And this month,

on the 12th of August, Sir Salman Rushdie was attacked in upstate New York in Shutauqua by a man acting on a fatwa issued in 1989 by the Ayatola Komeni.

The satanic verses, which Salman Rushdie published in 1988, turned Salman into, I guess, the lightning rod of the fault line between what Samuel

Huntington used to call, or called, rather, the clash of civilizations.

So today, to speak with me about Sir Salman Rushdie, the Satanic verses in what's happened,

is Canadian human rights activist Yasmin Mohammed, who in 2019 published her,

in my opinion, very brave book, unveiled how Western liberals empower radical Islam.

Yasmin, thank you so much for joining me today.

Thank you so much for having me here today. It's my pleasure and honor.

And it's great to see you again. We met in 2019, just as you were, I think, just published your book.

I'd love to get into that. But let's talk first about Salman Rushdie and the Satanic Verses.

What is so offensive about the satanic verses?

It doesn't take much to offend extremist Muslims. The most benign criticism is going to have

...