{"id":1603469,"date":"2022-08-12T14:16:09","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T18:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1603469"},"modified":"2022-08-12T14:16:23","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T18:16:23","slug":"rushdie-stabbing-reminds-us-that-iran-is-still-worlds-leading-terror-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rushdie-stabbing-reminds-us-that-iran-is-still-worlds-leading-terror-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Rushdie Stabbing Reminds Us That Iran Is Still World\u2019s Leading Terror State"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frushdie-stabbing-reminds-us-that-iran-is-still-worlds-leading-terror-state%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1603469&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Reuters <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Reuters\/status\/1558127446309965824\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reports<\/a> that a man stormed the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and stabbed British author Salman Rushdie in the neck as he was being introduced. The topic of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/palewire\/status\/1558141682213826562\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">discussion<\/a> was \u201cthe United States as asylum for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creative expression.\u201d Chances are exceptionally high that this was the work of a jihadist. <\/p>\n<p>For those too young to remember, \u201cThe Satanic Verses\u201d was published back in September 1988. And because of the book\u2019s purportedly impertinent treatment of the prophet Muhammad, it was banned in Rushdie\u2019s native <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2015\/dec\/01\/banning-salman-rushdies-satanic-verses-was-wrong-says-indian-minister\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">India<\/a> and dozens of other nations\u2014including virtually every Muslim-majority <a href=\"https:\/\/berkleycenter.georgetown.edu\/essays\/the-em-satanic-verses-em-controversy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">country<\/a> in the world. Though Rushdie would later become a powerful advocate of free expression, he initially turned on his own book, apologizing numerous times for its contents. \u201cI profoundly regret the distress that publication has occasioned to sincere followers of Islam,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1989\/02\/19\/nyregion\/quotation-of-the-day-784889.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a> in one statement, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1990\/06\/14\/books\/rushdie-publisher-explains-absence-of-a-paperback.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">asking<\/a> his publisher to hold back release of the paperback edition of the book. As a matter of self-preservation, his position was understandable.<\/p>\n<p>And, still, it was all to no avail. Iran\u2019s supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Rushdie, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2009\/jan\/11\/salman-rushdie-satanic-verses\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">contending<\/a> that even if the author \u201cbecame the most pious man of all time\u201d it was the duty of every Muslim to \u201cemploy everything he has got\u201d to murder the writer.<\/p>\n<p>For the first time in postwar history, terrorism was aimed at suppressing free expression in the liberal Western world. In the United States, two bookshops in Berkeley, California, were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1989\/03\/01\/world\/2-bookstores-in-berkeley-are-firebombed-rushdie-tie-is-explored.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">attacked<\/a>. The Riverdale Press in New York was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.riverdalepress.com\/stories\/bomb-defiance,68231\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">firebombed<\/a> after publishing an editorial defending the right to read the novel and criticizing the bookstores that pulled it from their shelves. Rushdie\u2019s Japanese translator Hitoshi Igarashi was <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.nytimes.com\/www.nytimes.com\/books\/99\/04\/18\/specials\/rushdie-translator.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fatally stabbed<\/a>. In Europe, the Italian translator of \u201cThe Satanic Verses,\u201d Ettore Capriolo, was also stabbed in his apartment in Milan and the\u00a0Norwegian publisher of Rushdie\u2019s book, William Nygaard, was shot three times, but both survived. In Belgium an imam and his aide were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/archive\/politics\/1989\/03\/30\/brussels-imam-slain\/0636e15e-33b4-4661-8907-b991a78a7fda\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">murdered<\/a> after expressing moderate positions on the affair. Big booksellers in London were firebombed in April 1989, and there were two more explosions connected to the selling of the book and a handful of unexploded devices in other bookstores. Rushdie, author of the masterpiece \u201cMidnight\u2019s Children\u201d among many other fantastic works, was forced to employ round-the-clock protection by bodyguards, compelled to spend the next decade in hiding. <\/p>\n<p>The point of the fatwa was not only to punish Rushdie for blasphemy, but to intimidate others from daring to engage. It worked. As I note in detail in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Eurotrash-America-Reject-Failed-Continent\/dp\/0063066017\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">my<\/a> recent book, Europe\u2014and to a lesser extent, the United States\u2014began to self-censor any topic that might offend Islamic theocrats. No one should be guaranteed a job or a book, of course, but folding to illiberal pressure only incentivizes more threats and violence, as we saw with Charlie Hebdo and the numerous other attacks that followed. More recently, the left has simply begun smearing anyone who noted the illiberalism of political Islam as an Islamophobe. As author Kenan Malik noted, the legacy of the Rushdie fatwa was that Western Europe had \u201cinternalized\u201d censorship. \u201cRushdie\u2019s critics lost the battle; The Satanic Verses continues to be published,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meforum.org\/campus-watch\/13433\/how-the-west-was-lost-for-free-speech-incl-denise\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a>. \u201cBut they won the war. The argument at the heart of the anti-Rushdie case\u2014that it is morally unacceptable to cause offence to other cultures\u2014is now widely accepted.\u201d Rushdie has rightly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adweek.com\/galleycat\/rushdie-random-gave-in-to-censorship-by-fear\/8588\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">called<\/a> this capitulation \u201ccensorship by fear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We should not forget, even as the Biden administration is trying to strike another <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2022\/03\/bidens-coming-iran-deal-will-be-even-worse-than-obamas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sweetheart<\/a> deal that would ultimately give the mullahs nuclear weapons, that this is the work of the theocratic terror state of Iran. Even if this attacker is non-jihadi, the fact is that the fatwa still stands today. In 2016, Iran <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/4233580\/fatwa-salman-rushdie-iran\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">raised<\/a> it to nearly $4 million. When Iran isn\u2019t destabilizing the Middle East through proxies or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2002\/07\/22\/world\/iran-blew-up-jewish-center-in-argentina-defector-says.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">blowing up<\/a> Jewish centers in Argentina or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2021\/11\/18\/iranian-hackers-charged-voter-intimidation-campaign-522972\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">intimidating<\/a> American voters or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/iranian-national-charged-plot-murder-john-bolton-rcna42392\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">plotting<\/a> to kill former American officials or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/iran-us-iraq-war-troops-killed-efps-shiite-militias-1385990\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">murdering<\/a> over 600 U.S. soldiers in Iraq, they are funding bounties against innocent writers. \u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books\u2014the most recent, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Eurotrash-America-Reject-Failed-Continent\/dp\/0063066017\/\">Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent<\/a>. His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post, and numerous other publications. Follow him on Twitter, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidharsanyi\/\">@davidharsanyi<\/a>.<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reuters reports that a man stormed the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and stabbed British author Salman Rushdie in the neck as he was being introduced. The topic of discussion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1603469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1603469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1603469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1603469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1603469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1603469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1603469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}