Posted by Eugene Volokh:
The War on Terror,
Jonathan Rauch writes, started [1]on February 14, 1989:
. . . On February 14, 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the
spiritual leader and revolutionary dictator of Iran, pronounced a
fatwa (an Islamic legal judgment) against the British novelist
Salman Rushdie. It said:
"In the name of Him, the Highest. There is only one God, to whom we
shall all return. I inform all zealous Muslims of the world that
the author of the book entitled The Satanic Verses -- which has
been compiled, printed, and published in opposition to Islam, the
Prophet, and the Koran -- and all those involved in its publication
who were aware of its content are sentenced to death.
"I call on all zealous Muslims to execute them quickly, wherever
they may be found, so that no one else will dare to insult the
Muslim sanctities. God willing, whoever is killed on this path is a
martyr." . . .
In January, the Iranian media reported that Iran's supreme leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reaffirmed the fatwa, telling Muslim
pilgrims that Rushdie's killing would be authorized by Islam.
British officials, reported The Times of London, "anxiously played
down" the comments, noting that the Iranian government had not
changed its position.
Just so. Khamenei spoke not for a government but for an insurgency,
one with millions of followers around the world. The West could not
have understood that in 1989, but it cannot fail to understand it
today.
References
1. http://nationaljournal.com/members/buzz/2005/socialstudies/022505.htm
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