In August 1938, a group of Indian Muslims in London ceremoniously burned a copy of H. G. Wells’ 1922 book A Short History of the World on the grounds that the celebrated author had insulted Islam and its Prophet by proffering this opinion 1 : ‘He [Prophet Mohammad] seems to have been a man compounded of very considerable vanity, greed, cunning, and selfdeception, and quite sincere religious passion … Regarded as literature or philosophy the Koran is certainly unworthy of its alleged divine authority’ (Wells, 2006: 195). This attempt at suppression of free speech by colonial subjects was not given any epithet at the time. However, by the time Muslims in Bradford – who were British citizens – half a century later in January 1989 burned copies of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, again on the grounds of insult to the faith and Prophet, the epithet ‘Islamophobia’ had gained currency. It was taken to mean hatred and disrespect of Islam or anything that offended reactionary Muslim groups. To their credit, the governments in 1938 and 1989 did not succumb to censorious demands and allowed the books to remain published and sold by book sellers.