COMMON SENSE
We Ignored Salman Rushdie’s Warning
Bari Weiss
August 13, 2022
We live in a culture in which many of the most celebrated people occupying the highest perches believe that words are violence. In this, they have much in common with Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who issued the first fatwa against Salman Rushdie in 1989, and with Hadi Matar, the 24-year-old who, yesterday, appears to have fulfilled his command when he stabbed the author in the neck on a stage in Western New York. The first group believes they are motivated by inclusion and tolerance—that it’s possible to create something even better than liberalism, a utopian society where no one is ever offended. The second we all recognize as religious fanatics. But it is the indulgence and cowardice of the words are violence crowd that has empowered the second and allowed us to reach this moment, when a fanatic rushes the stage of a literary conference with a knife and plunges it into one of the bravest writers alive. READ MORE
THE HILL Jonathan Schanzer: Rushdie attack reveals — again — true nature of Iranian regime In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini sentenced Rushdie to death. On Tehran radio, the Supreme leader stated: “I would like to inform all intrepid Muslims in the world that the author of the book Satanic Verses, which has been compiled, printed, and published in opposition to Islam, the Prophet, and the Qur’an, and those publishers who were aware of its contents, are sentenced to death. I call on all zealous Muslims to execute them quickly, where they find them.” In essence, Khomeini pitted Islam against the West. A $2.8 million bounty was put on Rushdie’s head.
NEW YORK POST Salman Rushdie attacker praises Iran’s ayatollah, surprised author survived: jailhouse interview The New Jersey man who allegedly stabbed Salman Rushdie in Western New York last week praised Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in an exclusive jailhouse interview with The Post on Wednesday — and admitted he didn’t think the author would survive the attack.
ArchitectGuy on Israel 