Happy Valentines Day! As one cartoon rager recently lamented that if the Muslims had actually gotten Rushdie 17 years ago, Westerners wouldn’t be so uppity today as to dare to draw cartoons of Muhammad, the Iranian mullahocracy has seen fit to reinforce the death fatwa against the author of The Satanic Verses on its 17th anniversary.
From Iran Focus, with thanks to Mackie:
Tehran, Iran, Feb. 14 — A religious edict issued by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini against the life of British author Salman Rushdie still stands, Iran’s official state news agency reported on the anniversary of the decree.
On February 14, 1989, Khomeini issued a fatwa calling on all Muslims to kill Rushdie for writing the controversial novel The Satanic Verses.
In a statement carried by the official news agency, the government-run body Martyrs Foundation announced, “The fatwa by Imam Khomeini in regards to the apostate Salman Rushdie will be in effect forever”.
“The book The Satanic Verses was the incarnation of the satanic plots of the World Arrogance (United States) and the occupying Zionists which appeared through the sleeves of this apostate”, the statement said.
One of Iran’s state “bonyads”, or foundations, has offered a $2.8 million bounty on Rushdie’s life.