The network of Islamic extremist actors behind Salman Rushdie’s stabbing includes Iran’s government and a US college professor
Friday, August 12th, Indian-born British-American novelist Salman Rushdie was stabbed multiple times, including in his neck, by an Islamic extremist. The stabbing occurred as he was scheduled to deliver a lecture in Chautauqua, New York and a suspect, 24-year-old Hadi Matar, has been arrested and charged.
Rushdie has written a number of iconic and critically acclaimed novels over his long and distinguished career, often focusing on the nation of India, Islam, and dichotomy between west and east. For his 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses, a fatwa was issued by the Supreme Leader of Iran at the time, Ruhollah Khomeini.
Since 2000, Rushdie has lived in the United States, however threats from the Islamic community have continued to follow him, ultimately culminating in the events of Friday.
While the fatwa originated in Iran in 1989, Rushdie has continuously been harassed and threatened by extremist Islamic elements in the decades since.
Here in the US, an Islamic studies professor, dubbed the “Professor of Peace,” at Ohio’s Oberlin college, openly endorsed the fatwa and campaign against Rushdie, while he was employed as Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations.
Mohammad Jafar Mahallati said the following at the time:
“I think all Islamic countries agree with Iran. All Islamic nations and countries agree with Iran that any blasphemous statement against sacred figures should be condemned.”
“I think if Western countries really believe and respect freedom of speech, therefore they should also respect our freedom of speech. We certainly use that right in order to express ourselves, our religious belief, in the case of any blasphemous statement against sacred Islamic figures.”
Mahallati, after endorsing a fatwa against a prominent author, not only managed to receive an academic career in the United States, but to end up dubbed the “Professor of Peace.”
Meanwhile, his words and actions encouraged Friday’s assassination attempt which left Rushdie unable to speak and on a ventilator.
The Mainstream Media and leftist Twitter accounts have, by and large, been ignoring this stabbing, and when it is addressed the component of Islamic extremism is frequently downplayed. Justice and truth are forced to take a back seat to political correctness.