Saleem Sinai nations. Rushdie's character has been much discussed in literary circles. "Midnight's Children" is considered by many to be the author's masterwork and it has inspired a generation of writers on the subcontinent. Many authors have their work compared to it and their characters compared to Saleem Sinai. and focus on aspects of his complex character. The character has been discussed as being in many ways an autobiographical representation of Rushdie himself. Saleem Sinai is an Anglo-Indian born at the moment of India's independence and is a self-conscious narrator who questions the readers' assumptions about what constitutes a life story or
Cat Stevens' comments about Salman Rushdie Some commentators have concluded that the character "Bilal X" in Rushdie's book is a caricature of Yusuf Islam. The fictional character Bilal X, a successful African-American former pop singer who has converted to Islam, is portrayed by Rushdie as the "favoured lieutenant" of "the Imam", a character based on the Shia Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Bilal X's "well-nourished, highly trained" voice serves as "a weapon of the West turned against its makers." Cat Stevens' comments about Salman Rushdie Following Ayatollah Khomeini's 14 February 1989 death fatwa against author Salman Rushdie, after the publication of Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses", Yusuf Islam,