The Satanic Verses

Jumpy Joshi, feeling guilty for sleeping with Saladin's wife, tries to find Saladin somewhere to stay. He takes Saladin to the Shaandaar Café to meet Muhammad Sufyan, a former academic and political activist. While Muhammad is willing to rent a room to Saladin, his wife Hind is horrified by the half man, half goat who now resembles the devil. Joshi tries to explain to the café owners how Saladin miraculously survived the terrorist attack. Mishal and Anahita, the café owners' daughters, are fascinated by "radical" (147) Saladin and they convince their mother to allow him to stay.

After settling into his new rooms and reflecting on how he escaped the hospital, Saladin contacts Mimi Mamoulian. Mimi is his former colleague who worked on the television show in which Saladin was a voice actor. She tells Saladin that he has already been replaced by a white man, so that he has "lost work as well as wife, home, a grip on life" (156). Mimi also mentions that she has begun a relationship with Billy Battuta, a man with a less than stellar reputation. Saladin tries to warn Mimi that Billy is "a con-man, basically" (157), but she insists that she is aware of his reputation” Mishal and Anahita remain fascinated by Saladin and explain to him how their family makes money by rending rooms to immigrants who have “little hope of being declared permanent” (159).

Saladin remembers how he got his role on The Aliens Show: his willingness to ignore any race-based politics impressed an agent named Hal Valance. In Saladin’s absence, however, a community leader named Dr. Uhuru Simba leads protests against the firing of the non-white cast. Saladin meets Valance, when the agent espoused the virtues of then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her attempts to revolutionize the middle class. Despite Saladin’s pleas, Valance insists that he has no job.

Hind reads a magazine. She is shocked to learn that the famous movie star Gibreel Farishta is still alive. Gibreel is about to make a comeback in a new movie about the “encounter between a prophet and an archangel” (164). The film will be produced by Billy Battuta and S. S. Sisodia. Saladin is outraged. The angrier he becomes, the more his goat-like features seem to become “diminished” (165). Later, however, Gibreel’s big comeback hits a stumbling block. Billy Battuta is arrested due to corruption. Mimi is also arrested.

Despite the momentary fading of his goat-like features, Saladin’s transformation continues. He grows a tail and the horns on his head become larger. Despite his best efforts to “stay away from the big house in Notting Hill” (168), Pamela and Joshi continue their affair. She refuses to acknowledge Saladin or her growing alcoholism until Pamela becomes pregnant. In the café, Mishal Sufyan has a secret relationship with Hanif Johnson, the lawyer who mocks Joshi in the café.

Though Mishal and Anahita have taken him “under their wing” (170), Saladin cannot remain hidden in the café for very long. Soon, the people in the community begin to notice the devil-like man in the café. They begin to see Saladin when they dream, so much so that the so-called “dream-devil” (172) becomes something of a local celebrity. He even becomes a symbol for a political movement, though the police decide that the sudden prevalence of Saladin’s image is due to a devil-worshipping cult among the young Black and Asian teenagers in London. A serial killer begins murdering old women. Nicknamed the “Granny Ripper” (173), the white majority in the community begin to suspect any non-white people of the murders.

Jealous of her older sister’s secret affair, Anahita tells Hind about the relationship between Hanif and Mishal. Hind is furious, so she blames Saladin for corrupting her daughter. Though she wants to kick Saladin out of the room, removing him has become physically difficult. Saladin is “over eight feet” (175) tall and blows smoke from his nose. Mishal and Hanif arrange for Saladin to stay elsewhere. They contact their friend, a deejay named Pinkwalla who works at the Hot Wax Club. Saladin is allowed to sleep in the club each night after it closes. One night, Saladin lies awake. He reflects angrily on Gibreel, blaming him for everything that has happened to him. His anger emanates from his body, melting the wax figures that are stored in the club. Saladin is struck by a sudden pain all over his body. Only when the pain subsides is he able to fall asleep. The next morning, Pinkwalla comes to the club with Hanif and Mishal. They find that Saladin has been “restored to his old shape […] by the fearsome concentration of his hate” (178) though his eyes still glow red.