Thread by @KimGhattas

Appalled and shocked by the attack on #SalmanRushdie. The pen might be mightier than the sword but zealotry and intolerance of all kind seems to trump all. Rushdie once said: “A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return”

Ayatollah #Khomeini clearly couldn't live in a world with all sorts of books, even from his grave, his fatwa is a curse, continues to ripple with dangerous effect. Beyond name of attacker, we are still waiting to hear all details of who/what/why/how, but here's some history.

Khomeini issued his fatwa on Valentine's day 1989, one a day before the last Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan. It was read out on Feb 14 on the 2pm news on Tehran radio. it was 1st time an author was targeted in such a way and it marked start of culture wars in the region

I detail this in Chapter 10 of my book Black Wave. Satanic Verses had been translated into Persian and was available in Iran, no one cared. Until Khomeini heard of the uproar against the book in India, leading to protests in the UK by British Muslims...
amazon.com/Black-Wave-Sau…

...then in Pakistan. The frenzy was partly fed by the head of the Islamic affairs section of the Saudi embassy in the UK who launched a campaign against the book. Not to be outdone by what he saw as Saudi-led fervor, Khomeini issued his fatwa.

Saudi clerics then declared Rushdie should be put on trial and al Azhar declared that any verdict against Rushdie should be issued by a government. But it was Khomeini who dominated the headlines and posed as the representative of aggrieved Muslims.

This fatwa was a turning point for the Middle East and the Muslim world, it opened the floodgates of attacks against intellectuals like Naguib Mahfouz and Farag Foda in Egypt and elsewhere, throughout the 90's and to this day.

Khomeini's successor, Ali Khamenei, and his loyal follower, leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah have both recently tweeted and spoken out in favor of the fatwa.

And Nasrallah here in Arabic.

https://twitter.com/alexjrowell/status/1558315943830474752?s=20&t=qVh71DmEH11d7kYmUd2lq