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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Ayatollah revives the death fatwa on Salman Rushdie
2005-01-20
A FATWA against the author Salman Rushdie was reaffirmed by Iran's spiritual leader last night in a message to Muslim pilgrims. British officials anxiously played down comments after Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told Muslims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that Rushdie was an apostate whose killing would be authorised by Islam, according to the Iranian media.

His words came during a lengthy tirade against "Western and Zionist capitalists" and the US-led War on Terror. However, senior British officials swiftly made plain last night that the Iranian Government, which had disassociated itself from the fatwa in 1998, had not changed its position.They pointed out that because the fatwa was issued in February 1989 by Iran's revolutionary founder and Khamenei's predecessor, Ayatollah Khomeini, who had since died, it would always remain in existence. They insisted that the move did not presage a further deterioration in the already tense relations with Iran over its nuclear programme. "This should not be taken as a new development," one said.
Posted by:Fred

#32  Traitors on this board are monitored by Jew Watch USA.
Posted by: Elmoting Granter5118   2005-01-20 9:59:14 AM  

#31  Traitors on this board are monitored by Jew Watch USA.
Posted by: Elmoting Granter5118   2005-01-20 9:59:14 AM  

#30  This is like a bad Ground Hog's Day movie.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen   2005-01-20 10:52:58 PM  

#29  How 'bout a home-grown fatwa on the ayutollah cornhola. Or would that be bad Karma. What about getting hit by a group of 10,000 bibles air dropped from FL300? That would put some spin in the turbans. But first ya give 'em the black spot, yar.
[/maniacal laugh]
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2005-01-20 10:19:58 PM  

#28  Peace. ;-) Always, .com.
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-01-20 10:07:42 PM  

#27  It's taken me 30 years to give away books. I still don't give away the really good stuff, it's unlikely you'll every find a copy of Janes with my BC# in it. That said bookcrossing has helped me relieve the guilt of many years of "overborrowing".
Posted by: Shipman   2005-01-20 4:28:53 PM  

#26  .com & TW - Happiness is a maxed-out library card! ;)
Posted by: Desert Blondie   2005-01-20 3:48:13 PM  

#25  Lol! Peace. ;-)
Posted by: .com   2005-01-20 3:24:26 PM  

#24  Oh, I do give away and loan out books, .com. And sometimes get them back, too... the "sometimes" part annoys Mr. Wife no end, as I often can't remember to whom I loaned them. Ah well. Its just that A) we re-read a lot, and B) given a choice I'd choose books over furniture or a vast wardrobe (which, admittedly, I don't have anyway, so its an easy choice). But when it comes to books, which are thoughts made flesh, as it were, I gleefully admit to being greedy as a child in a candy shop with a whole dollar to spend. So there!
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-01-20 3:12:33 PM  

#23  Ha! tw is the epitome of greed! Evil! Share with those who are still fog-bound. You know people who are clueless (unfortunate, but unavoidable, heh) - so clue them in! Unless they can't / won't read. Then you're just going to have to shoot them -- or get them to believe that it doesn't matter who holds office and, therefore, they don't need to vote... your choice!

I think a first edition or signed edition of an important work would be my only exception. My epiphany regards this habit occurred around '98 and I began divesting myself of my collection. I donated over 400 books to the company's new smoking room at one place I worked. It was a major success that grew to over 700 volumes within 2 years. And there were more non-smokers than smokers in there at any given time you dropped in.

This is just one of those little Buddhist thingys I've adopted - I happily rip off the good ideas from all religions and ideologies I run across, lol - waste nothing, find someone who needs what you no longer need. Once I've read a book, and "get it", then I no longer need it. ;-)
Posted by: .com   2005-01-20 2:50:47 PM  

#22  No one should keep a book!!!!!

We have to buy more bookcases every few years, just so we can move the piles out of the corners! Even though we haunt the libraries and friends' bookcases. I was positively dreading the possibility some years back of being posted to China -- the thought of paring down our collection to fit the tiny apartment we would have lived in was distressing almost beyond words.
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-01-20 2:34:56 PM  

#21  Heh, that does look like an interesting experiment. Sorta like a modern version of putting a letter in a bottle. Hmmm.
Posted by: .com   2005-01-20 12:37:51 PM  

#20  .com here's cheap fun you can have with old books, it's oddly addicting.
Posted by: Shipman   2005-01-20 12:28:25 PM  

#19  So it sucked and made him rich? No wonder he's got that shit eating grin on his face.
Posted by: tu3031   2005-01-20 12:16:47 PM  

#18  TW & .com-I didn't care for it either-a very cumbersome, complicated writing style-it just wasn't a pleasure to read. I got about as far as .com before I moved on to another book. I am however glad he wrote it, simply for the sole benefit of p*ssing off the Mullahs.
Posted by: Jules 187   2005-01-20 12:02:19 PM  

#17  She said turgid, heh
/Beavis

I read about 3 chapters and lost the urge - that was long, long ago. Might see it in a different light, today, but he looks like he's doing fine, heh. Donated my hardback copy to a library where they store such things. Books I enjoy go to friends with the requirement that they pass them along when finished. No one should keep a book, that's just greedy, IMHO.
Posted by: .com   2005-01-20 11:55:16 AM  

#16  I did. Even bought a copy in a gesture of support. I found it a bit turgid though; Rushdie's Midnight's Children, about the early years of Indian independence, is much better.
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-01-20 11:47:58 AM  

#15  Has anyone, anywhere ever known of anyone, anywhere who actually read that book?
Posted by: tu3031   2005-01-20 10:54:44 AM  

#14  British officials anxiously played down comments after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told Muslims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that Rushdie was an apostate whose killing would be authorised by Islam, according to the Iranian media.

One cruise missile right through this assahollah ayatollah's front door should be enough.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2005-01-20 10:54:24 AM  

#13  As with their totalitarian friends in Beijing, nothing, no detail, is too petty to occupy the mind and spike the insecurity of a Mad Mullah.
Posted by: .com   2005-01-20 10:28:02 AM  

#12  My votes a French Restaurant.

PS We have a major problem here. The hordes of Muslims knocking on Europe's gates to escape persecution are the same "cells" that will establish roots in our free western democracies and then turn around and obey Fatwas from the same Nazi's they escaped from. What a mess!!
Posted by: Rightwing   2005-01-20 10:16:31 AM  

#11  It amazes me that one man who once upon a time wrote a silly book would be so virulently and omnipresently in the thoughts of generations of Iran's national leadership.

That country needs booze and psychotherapy, and lots of it.
Posted by: gb506   2005-01-20 10:15:06 AM  

#10  Yup, Nottingham's famed for its p-c outlook.. try Ilkeston - the pinko-liberal heartland of the East Midlands!! We still await our first mosque..
Posted by: Howard UK   2005-01-20 9:56:58 AM  

#9  Small private firm Lex , set up by myself and a few friends . Yeh yeh yeh , business and pleasure dont mix , or so folk say . But we , apart from our differing social views , work very well together . The threat to quit was very real , person in question was our chief programmer who has lead a very sheltered 'educated' life . The threat to quit was more an issue in saving our friendship , but we ironed out our differences and now we agree to disagreee , and leave it at that .
Posted by: MacNails   2005-01-20 9:51:27 AM  

#8  MacNails - I'm very curious as to what kind of company has employees who threaten resignation because of another employee's view on a particular issue. In what type of firm do you work (public/private, large/small, many nationalities/primarily UK)?
Posted by: lex   2005-01-20 9:06:10 AM  

#7  And the thing that really really REALLY pisses me off is that they , the less moderate muslims, feel alienated because their customs and traditions aren't respected by the majority of people in the UK. Hey, Shakespeare refers to the Moors/Muhammedans as animals - would he have had a fatwa pronounced upon him?

Posted by: Howard UK   2005-01-20 8:36:55 AM  

#6  Perhaps its time for the fat lady to sing ...
Posted by: MacNails   2005-01-20 8:12:29 AM  

#5  EoZ even.. dementia creeps ever closer..
Posted by: Howard UK   2005-01-20 7:47:41 AM  

#4  McN - all the non-pc types have been moved to the upper floor of my building where we continue to rant in isolation... 'splendid isolation', I believe Churchill called it.

Azcat - bang on the money kidder - we're going to have to grow balls in the EU or lose all our artistic freedom.
Posted by: Howard UK   2005-01-20 7:37:52 AM  

#3  /sarcasm on *gasp* /sarcasm off

Poor Howard 'A number of educated, middle class friends have recently taken a dim view of my belief that force should be used unsparingly to remove these fascists from power' .. I have this issue all the time at work and with a few friends , one person even threatened to quit because of my views . How I laughed ..

Posted by: MacNails   2005-01-20 7:26:26 AM  

#2  Howard,
I am even more extremist on this than you are.
I think the British Government as well as the entire EU should conduct public trials to all religious and political figures issuing Fatwas, convict all of them of planning a murder and general incitement and give them long prison
terms in their absence.
Any one of those convicted in their absence will
be arrested and jailed the second they show up at any western airport.
If any of them actually succed in murdering Rushdi
or another western victim like Ali Hirshi, I suggest Britain or the Dutch should send special agents or units to kidnap the Mullah who originally issued the Fatwa and bring him to London or Amsterdam to stand trial and be publicly hanged.

P.S. I know I am daydreaming and no British or European official has balls large enough to really do this but I still think that there should be some way that the real snakeheads could be executed for sending other fanatic shitheads to murder someone for a religious offense.-
Posted by: EoZ   2005-01-20 7:16:39 AM  

#1  A number of educated, middle class friends have recently taken a dim view of my belief that force should be used unsparingly to remove these fascists from power. I'll say it again.. you can't have people who think that, at God's willing, the sky can fall on their heads having control of a nuclear arsenal. The sooner this bunch of cranks are ousted, the better. Doubtless we'll have the baying hordes back burning his books on the streets of London even tho they can't speak English and have never read 'em. Fascism pure and simple. Bombs away!!
Posted by: Howard UK   2005-01-20 6:53:04 AM  

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