Hmm - did you and I read the same Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie) entry? The one which includes this bit:
On 24 September 1998, as a precondition to the restoration of diplomatic relations with Britain, the Iranian government, then headed by moderate Mohammad Khatami, gave a public commitment that it would "neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie."[12][13] Hardliners in Iran have, however, continued to reaffirm the death sentence.[14] In early 2005, Khomeini's fatwa was reaffirmed by Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.[15] Additionally, the Revolutionary Guards have declared that the death sentence on him is still valid.[16] Iran has rejected requests to withdraw the fatwa on the basis that only the person who issued it may withdraw it[15], and the person who issued it is dead.
Would you still call that a supporting argument?
And by the way, Theo van Gogh is still dead.
Seriously, when folks publicly say "we'll kill people for speaking X," it pays not to dismiss them out of hand. Consider also that if a Christian preacher issued a proclamation saying that anyone who apostacizes will be killed, s/he would be shouted down by an overwhelming number of other Christians. The Muslims who react in a similar way to that very mainstream teaching (i.e. that the penalty for apostacy is death) are a tiny, tiny whisper amid the shouts for the blood of the heretics.
I encourage moderates, but I do not belittle the magnitude of their task.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: on moderation
Date: 2007-12-10 04:09 am (UTC)Would you still call that a supporting argument?
And by the way, Theo van Gogh is still dead.
Seriously, when folks publicly say "we'll kill people for speaking X," it pays not to dismiss them out of hand. Consider also that if a Christian preacher issued a proclamation saying that anyone who apostacizes will be killed, s/he would be shouted down by an overwhelming number of other Christians. The Muslims who react in a similar way to that very mainstream teaching (i.e. that the penalty for apostacy is death) are a tiny, tiny whisper amid the shouts for the blood of the heretics.
I encourage moderates, but I do not belittle the magnitude of their task.