Rushdie became a symbol of artistic freedom to artists worldwide, as exemplified in the above sculpture, “Salman Barbeque,” by artist William Ross, which depicts the following:
	“A stern Ayatollah Khomeni roasts a bound Salman Rushdie over a burning copy of Rushdie's proscribed book, The Satanic Verses. The alternating pen and sword on the propeller blades signify the eternal struggle between freedom of expression and repressive intolerance, while the chilling text of the Ayatollah's fatwa, or death sentence, is printed on the whirligig's tail. ‘Salman Barbeque’ was exhibited at the Center on Contemporary Art (Seattle, WA), where the respected art critic Mathew Kangas selected it as his "best-of-show choice", and at the Bellevue Art Museum (Bellevue, WA) in 1996”  (<http://www.seanet.com/~billr/bbq.htm> Accessed July 22, 2001).