-25 Years Later: ‘The Rushdie Rules’
by Dr. D ~ March 6th, 2014
With all of the Valentine celebrations going on in the West, an important anniversary came and went with very little acknowledgement. On February 14, 1989 Ayatollah Khomeini, the ruler of Iran issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie for his supposed anti Muhammad novel –The Satanic Verses. Khomeini called for the killing and execution of Rushdie along with "all those involved in the publication who were aware of its contents."
This was the first time that sharia law was attempted to be imposed in a Western country and on a world-wide level. Rushdie was a resident of the UK and had no connection at all with Iran. Since then fatwas have been issued against cartoonists, video producers, blog writers, Quran burners, and anyone else who publically dares to speak against Islam or Muhammad.
Salman Rushdie is now 66 years of age and survived the constant threat of death but his career as a writer was essentially over since no one wanted to be involved with publishing another Rushdie book for the obvious reasons and threats of violence.
Since this initial fatwa Westerners have been constrained in their ability to freely discuss and give honest opinion about Islam and Muhammad. This impairment of free speech has come to be known as the ‘Rushdie Rules. The latest addition to the Rushdie Rules is the current political correctness dictum that negative criticism of Islam must be avoided at all costs in order to curtail the spread of Islamophobia.
It was the following excellent article by Daniel Pipes that called my attention to the 25 year anniversary of the Rushdie saga which marked the beginning of Islamic intimidation of Western thought: “The Rushdie Fatwa 25 Years Later”
