Can television dramas cause terrorism?

That was the topic of an exchange between the novelist Salman Rushdie and British politician George Galloway. Galloway told the audience:

...TV executives had to be "very sensitive about people's religion" and if broadcasters did not show sufficient sensitivity they "had to deal with the consequences".
He said: "You have to be aware if you do [offend people's beliefs] you will get blowback. You should do it very carefully, especially if you are a public service broadcaster."

Rushdie, subject to death threats since the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses in 1989, responded to objections to a hypothetical TV adaptation by saying:

"The simple fact is that any system of ideas that decides you have to ringfence it, that you cannot discuss it in fundamental terms, that you can't say that this bit of it is junk, or that bit is oppressive ... we are supposed to respect that?"

Pay attention to the structure of the argument: controversial material will cause anger, and then violence. Although Galloway accepts the hypothesis and Rushdie rejects it, neither one of them is disputing the logic of it.