Word: ayatullah
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...officially denounce Rushdie's novel. Britain responded with a carrot and a stick. Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe told the BBC World Service that Britain understood why Muslims criticized the book and said it was "offensive" for comparing Britain to Nazi Germany. But he emphasized that nothing justified Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini's order to kill Rushdie...
Another target was Khomeini's designated successor, Ayatullah Ali Montazeri, 64, who recently acknowledged that Iran's revolutionary leaders erred in isolating their country from the rest of the world. Khomeini was deeply offended by such talk. Dismissing the views of those who regard "martyrdom and self-sacrifice" as "worthless," he declared last week, "I formally apologize to the ((families)) of the martyred . . . and ask God to accept me next to the martyrs of the imposed war." He added, "We are not for a moment sorry for our actions during...
...noted that the net effect of the furor had been to increase the book's sales and profits "by astronomical figures." It would be far better, he suggested, if Islamic scholars prepared their own book refuting Rushdie's "lies." The English-language Egyptian Gazette argued that the Ayatullah's pronouncements "will do more to damage the image of Islam in the West than any words of Mr. Rushdie." Concluded the paper: "Without the outcry, the book might have sold some tens of thousands of copies and then sunk into oblivion as being too obscure for the general interest...
Rushdie's friends worried aloud about how he could make a life for himself under the Ayatullah's threat of death. Would he hire guards, or remain in seclusion, or retreat to some distant land? Few held out any hope that Khomeini would simply change his mind because the real victims of the Rushdie affair were not only the hapless author and his wife but the 50 million citizens of revolutionary Iran. After a decade of terror and death, the country had seemed to be in the early stages of recovery. But by his actions last week Khomeini brought that...
WORLD: The Ayatullah's wrath over a book confirms that the real blasphemy is within Iran...