Word: koran
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...Islamic Party. A former village mullah dismissed as something of a bumpkin by his rivals, Khalis sports a henna-dyed beard and in 1987 took a 16-year-old bride. He vehemently opposes elections; in his view, the only constitution needed for post-Soviet Afghanistan is the Koran...
Then, most astonishing of all, Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, 88, spiritual ruler of fundamentalist, revolutionary Iran, announces that the author must be killed for the sin of insulting Islam, the Prophet and the holy Koran, and for good measure exonerates any Muslim who manages to perpetrate this deed and promises him the rewards of martyrdom. And not only the author, but anyone else involved in the publication of the book. A day later, another Iranian cleric announces that a bounty has been placed on the author's head: $2.6 million if the avenger is an Iranian, $1 million...
...words a day, no longer betrays the traces of his working routine, mounting piles of typescript scattered about the floor. But on a mantelpiece in this room rests an intriguing souvenir of Rushdie's past: a beautifully bound octagonal miniature, roughly the size of a silver dollar, of the Koran...
Rushdie, whose first name is 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...
...recorded a millennium ago by Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari and other authoritative Muslim historians. Today's Islamic scholars, however, do not consider the story authentic. Like the section dealing with the scribe Salman, this episode is seen by Rushdie's critics as a blatant attempt to undermine the Koran as the word...