Khomeini ... decreed that British novelist Salman Rushdie be executed on account of the blasphemies in his book The Satanic Verses. With this, Khomeini established the Rushdie Rules, which still remain in place. They hold that whoever opposes “Islam, the Prophet, and the Koran” may be put to death; that anyone connected to the blasphemer must also be executed; and that all Muslims should participate in an informal intelligence network to carry out this threat. ...
Margaret Thatcher resisted pressure from Tehran in 1989 and stated that “there are no grounds on which the government could consider banning” The Satanic Verses. Other governments reinforced this stalwart position; for example, the U.S. Senate unanimously resolved “to protect the right of any person to write, publish, sell, buy and read books without fear of violence.” ...
Other Western leaders have faltered in defense of free expression. The governments of Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Great Britain, Israel, and the Netherlands have all attempted to jail or succeeded in jailing Rushdie Rule offenders.
The Obama administration has now joined this ignominious list.
Worst American President ever?
2 comments:
I wonder....Do most Americans today even know who Rushdie is and what happened with The Satanic Verses?
Furthermore, a lot of Americans seem to think that what happened with Rushdie was "way back when" and that Islam has somehow reformed. They believe the latter because of the omnipresent whitewash of Islam and the constant drum beat of revisionist history.
Pipes is right. But, I would go further. Obama and the FBI, the and the SecDef, actively used the authority of their respective offices to intimidate a citizen into refraining from exercising his First Amendment rights.
In doing so, they have broken their oaths of office.
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