Salman Rushdie and Strauss

Salman Rushdie has a good, but inconclusive column about multiculturalism at the Times of London. Speaking of Rushdie, and of course, his notoriety, reminds me about the Satanic Verses affair. This guy has death threats on his head to this day for his 'sacrilege' in that book. Does this not seem to justify Strauss' argument to a certain extent? Our own society is much different than others that have existed before; we view the right to say anything as sacred, while others saw it as a means to an end. But if a British author has to fear for his life because of trampling on others beliefs, I think it is fairly reasonable to say that many philosophers have worked hard to create ambiguous meanings. While I probably wouldn't take this hypothesis as far as Strauss himself, it does seem to make good sense.