Salman Rushdie is a writer whose works have been affected by his multicultural background of the East and the West. His western background caused him to contemplate the meaning of Islam.

Rushdie’s experience of living outside India was a recurring theme in his books. In his first book, The Grimus, Grimus somewhat resembles Rushdie. The Flapping Eagle searches for the meaning of life and in the end find it. This book was not really successful and is one of the books that caused controversies. The book displayed women as prostitutes or promiscuous. Rusdie seem to have something against women. This probably related to his past. Rushdie’s second book, Midnight’s Children, is about a child who was switched at birth. The child had a hard time deciding between Islam and Hinduism. The child spent life to and fro India and Pakistan. This book reflects Rushdie’s life a little more than his previous book. Rushdie’s life in the west had impacted his homeland view. He was once a Muslim but then started to question the religion. He said how the Koran is accepted as the words of God but it’s hard to believe that it could have been written by Prophet Mohammed exactly. Rusdie even thinks that Mohammed could have changed the text to suit himself.

In Rushdie’s most controversial book, The Satanic Verses, two Indian men survives fall from a jet hijacked by terrorists. The men eventually gained demonic powers. This book was influenced by Rushdie’s religion. The title of this book refers to verses from the Koran when Mohammed temporarily changed his belief. This book supports why Rushdie turned against Islam. The book was taken as an insult by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who then issued a religious order calling for Rushdie’s death. Because of the implications of writing Rushdie’s feeling in this book, Rushdie had to go incognito. Eventually the death order was dropped.

In 1994, Rushdie published East, West. This book shows how Rushdie’s life influences his writings. It includes nine stories. Three of them are set in the East, which in this case is India. Another three is set in the West, which in this case is England. The last three talk about the clash of the East and the West. In the first short story, “Good Advice is Rarer than Rubies”, Rushdie gives advice to women seeking a visa to England. In the second story, “The Free Radio”, Rushdie talks about birth control and how it can be view differently. The next story, “The Prophet’s Hair”, talks about a missing relic.