Despite an increasing outcry against Salman Rushdie's public lecture from the Islamic Council of Southern Africa, the Weekly Mail (now Mail and Guardian) announces that the public lecture will go ahead. The Weekly Mail invited him to give a public lecture on censorship. Many Islamic governments and other governments such as India and South Africa censored his book Satanic Versus. Many Islamic groups, including South African Muslims, accused Rushdie for committing blasphemy against Islam. As a result, his invitation to South Africa by the Weekly Mail was considered to be insensitive to the feelings of Muslims in the country.
