Rushdie, Iran, and the Triumph of ‘Censorship by Fear’

The point of the fatwa was not only to punish Rushdie for blasphemy but to intimidate others from daring to engage. It worked.

AP/Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, file
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. AP/Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, file

Last week, a man stormed the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and stabbed British author Salman Rushdie in the neck as he was being introduced. The topic under discussion was “the United States as asylum for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creative expression.” Chances are exceptionally high that this was the work of a jihadi.

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