Millat becomes more and more radicalized throughout the novel, attempting to adhere to fundamentalist Islamic beliefs: this is in response to his upbringing in England, where he feels powerless, like an outsider (as emphasized by the ticket man’s use of the word “Paki,” which is a derogatory term for East Indian people). The protest that Millat mentions refers to real-life protests against the novelist Salman Rushdie, whose book
The Satanic Verses drew extreme and sometimes violent controversy for what critics said was its blasphemous depiction of Islam.