This is the opening to my essay on the debate around Bob Vylan, Lucy Connoly and free speech, published in the Observer on 5 July 2025. You can read the full version in the Observer. In October 1989, the Muslim Institute helped organise a meeting on the Salman Rushdie affair at Manchester town hall. It had been eight months since Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini had imposed his fatwa calling for the killing of Rushdie for his “blasphemous” novel The Satanic Verses, forcing […]

Categories: Britain, Free Speech • Tags: asa winstanley, bob vylan, frances d'souza, glastonbury, haim bresheeth, kalim siddiqui, lucy connolly, muslim institute, palestine solidarity, richard medhurst, rushdie affair, salman rushdie, two-tier justice, two-tier policing