Word: speech
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...uproar over Salman Rushdie's controversial novel The Satanic Verses has sparked protests in the past two weeks at both Princeton and Columbia, where readings were held in support of Rushdie's right to free speech...
...faculty gathered to oppose a local bookstore's removal of the novel from its shelves. About 65 faculty members, students and towns-people attended the protest, which was organized by faculty members who said they were concerned about the implications of the book's removal for freedom of speech...
...Ayatullah is made of sterner stuff than that. The very next day the Iranian revolutionary leader, 88, issued a statement rejecting Rushdie's apology and declaring flatly, "It is incumbent on every Muslim to do everything possible to send him to hell." Three days later, in a speech to a group of Iranian clerics, Khomeini added that nothing, not even Western economic sanctions, would "force us to retreat and forgo implementation of God's decree...
...West, the issue largely seemed to resolve itself into a question of free speech. But in Iran, a vastly different phenomenon was taking shape: the Ayatullah had seized upon Rushdie's book as a flaming spear with which to halt his country's creeping trend toward moderation. Within days, the "liberals" who had seemed to be in the ascendant in Tehran dropped from sight. They had been trying to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties with the West in order to rebuild the country following its disastrous eight-year war with Iraq...
...most significant aspect of the Ayatullah's "send him to hell" speech was his emphasis on the rifts within his own government and his fears about the influence of those he called "misled liberals." Said Khomeini: "We should not, for the sake of pleasing several sellout liberals, act in a way that gives the impression that the Islamic Republic of Iran is deviating from its principled positions." Suddenly Rushdie's purported blasphemy seemed minor compared with the sins of Iranian officials who had dared support a renewal of ties with the decadent West...