Iranian foundation ups price on Rushdie's head

[oberliner]

Source: Reuters

DUBAI, Sept 16 (Reuters) - An Iranian religious foundation has increased its reward for the killing of British author Salman Rushdie, in response to a U.S.-made film that mocks the Prophet Mohammad, sparking protests across the Muslim world.

Rushdie, an Indian-born British novelist who has nothing to do with the film, was condemned to death in 1989 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's late leader, over his novel "The Satanic Verses," saying its depiction of the Prophet Mohammad was blasphemous.

Khomeini's fatwa - religious edict - was condemned in the West as incitement to murder and an assault on freedom of speech, but a wealthy Iranian religious organisation has offered a large reward to anyone carrying it out and decided to increase the bounty amid the furore over the online film.

"I am adding another $500,000 to the reward for killing Salman Rushdie, and anyone who carries out this sentence will receive the whole amount immediately," said Hassan Sanei, the foundation's head, in a statement carried by the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA).

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/16/film-protests-iran-rushdie-idUSL5E8KG2F920120916

[cr8tvlde]

1. Well, just how convenient is this timing...for the idiots on both sides?

[slackmaster]

2. I thought they had forgotten about The Satanic Verses

http://www.amazon.com/The-Satanic-Verses-Bestselling-Backlist/dp/0312270828

[loli phabay]

19. one thing ill give them is the long memory, you still hear talk of andalusia and the balkans from

some of the nuts, probuably unless they get confirmation that rushdie is dead it will still be in effect two hundred years from now.

[htuttle]

3. Do they think anyone was holding off killing Rushdie before because the money wasn't good enough?

The 'reward' is up to $3.3 million dollars now. They could probably just hire a proper hit man for that. I think they find their public posturing more important than the deed.

[oberliner]

4. I agree with your assessment

The timing seems particularly interesting.

[treestar]

9. True, he has survived this threat for 23 years

[Odin2005]

5. All the pro-censorship people probably thinks he should be jailed for offending...

...people's religious sensibilities and think it's his fault if he gets assassinated.

[shakeemondown]

6. I can only assume you are referring to all the "progressives" on this board....

The ones who want this movie making fool put under the jail...First Amendment be damned...

[Flatulo]

7. I know, right? And if one more person throws out the Crusades as a

justification for Muslim rage, I think I'll puke. Jesus, it was only a thousand fucking years ago. Let's all move on and vow to do better.

I say we crank alternative energy way up to high, (fuck the cost - let the government or NASA do it if the private sector can't see high enough profits yet; it's a matter of national survival), get off the oil high and let the Islamic world stew for another millennium or so until they learn how to act like adults.

[fujiyama]

14. If I see the stupid "fire in a public theater" argument again I'll puke.

If this idiotic piece of garbage movie is incitement, well my God, we should go banning half of what's on youtube. I'm kind of shocked how little people understand about the concept and importance of the first amendment's protection of distasteful, disgusting, and at times even hateful speech. I saw the "Innocence of Muslims" video. It's incredibly stupid and I suppose it's offensive to Muslims, but fortunately we don't jail people for just making shitty and offensive movies. If we did, I'd say jail Joel Schumacher for those two batman movies. Those were certainly devoid of artistic expression (Uma Thurman in a tight outfit not withstanding)...

We cannot and should not be cowed into submission by any particular religious group - and that includes Muslims (primarily), but also Christians, Scientologists, Jews, Hindus, or whatever other group at the moment has a stick up its collective ass because someone dares make fun of some dead person that claimed they spoke to some sky deity a few thousand years ago.

[oberliner]

24. Well said

Have you found more agreement or disagreement with these sentiments here thus far?

[Flatulo]

20. The local newspaper for the nearest large city (Worcester, MA) interviewed

A half dozen or so local Muslim residents for their views on the embassy attacks. While they all condemned the violence, each and every one of them called for an outright ban on criticizing Islam.

Now I understand that most of these people came from repressive regimes with subserviant pulations and wholly state-owned media, but dammit, our First Amendment rights cannot be sacrificed to appease any cranky religious group.

[Behind the Aegis]

8. The Bill Maher show could be really interesting this week.

[name not needed]

10. Salman Rushdie, embassy sieges, it's like a greatest hits of fundamentalist nonsense.

[vicar]

11. this is what they need to understand.

[Flatulo]

12. I always loved that speech. nt

[Warren DeMontague]

15. Thank You.

Welcome to DU.

[blaze]

16. Thanks

Was needing that today.

[ancianita]

13. Just read about him

in The New Yorker. Excellent piece, if you'd like to brush up on what it's like to be an "apostate" on the run. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/09/17/120917fa_fact_rushdie#ixzz26dBrFj36

[askeptic]

17. Maybe we should put a 1/2 mil reward on the head of Hassan Sanei

I wonder how quickly he would resign...

[Flatulo]

21. I like the cut of your jib, sir!

[sarcasmo]

18. My favorite Bill Maher guest.

[cpwm17]

22. Cenk Uygur does a good job defending free speech

I saw some on DU go so far as to call for blasphemy laws in the US, euphemistically called anti hate speech laws. They want to favor certain religious viewpoints over others by force of law. No, we have the First Amendment which covers both freedom of speech and religion. Our Founding Fathers thought it was so important that they put it # 1.

[defacto7]

23. 3.3 million dollars to the killer

... and a handsome headstone that will make for him too!