Word: khomeini
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...unprecedented international furor surrounding the fictional novel The Satanic Verses still rages, more than a week after Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini first called for the death of its British author Salman Rushdie, promising Paradise to his murderer. This controversy has put to test some of our most valued beliefs, including the sanctity of human life and of our rights to free speech...
...West, the Ayatollah's terrorist threats have generated virtually universal outrage. The twelve nations of the European Community have severed high-level diplomatic ties with Iran and have warned that economic sanctions may follow if Rushdie is harmed. However, President Bush issued only a weak statement condemning Khomeini at a press conference more than a week after the controversy began. And authors, librarians and scholars have only recently voiced their solidarity with Rushdie, who has gone into hiding...
...actual risk faced by Rushdie and his publishers if Khomeini sought to follow through on his threat was difficult to gauge. Of the roughly 25,000 Iranians in Britain, it is believed there may be as many as 1,000 radical extremists, including students on short-term visas. Tehran-backed groups have a history of violent mischief in London, mostly bombings aimed at Iranian dissidents. Says Ian Geldard, head of research at London's Institute for the Study of Terrorism: "In the Islamic world, a call from the Imam is a full command . . . The worst of it is that this...
...With Khomeini's death sentence hanging over his head, Rushdie issues an apology but remains reviled by millions of Muslims. It is an extraordinary controversy, stretching from the dusty streets of the Middle East to the bookstores of America. -- What Muslims find blasphemous in The Satanic Verses. -- Salman Rushdie, born in Bombay, educated at Cambridge...
...also Salman, seems to share the character's skepticism about the authenticity of God's revealed word. But the real-life author will be lucky if he enjoys the same clemency as his fictional counterpart. His literary twisting of the Koran is the central transgression for which the Ayatullah Khomeini has condemned him to death. Explains Indian- born writer Mihir Bose: "Every Muslim, whether fundamentalist or liberal, believes the Koran is literally the very word of God, preserved in heaven and transmitted by the angel Gabriel through Muhammad." The Prophet himself, although not considered divine, is revered by Muslims...