Suketu Mehta and Salman Rushdie discuss freedom of speech, the burning of books, and the proposed mosque in downtown Manhattan. Mehta is a professor of journalism at NYU and the author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. Rushdie is a reknowned novelist and literary figure, famous for the fatwa, or religious law, issued by the Supreme Leader of Iran in February 1989 calling for Rushdie's death. The fatwa was issued because of Rushdie's book, The Satanic Verses, and what was perceived as an irreverent depiction of the prophet Muhammad.