Salman Rushdie stabbed on stage while giving speech

[Julian]

read://https_metro.co.uk/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2022%2F08%2F12%2Fauthor-salman-rushdie-stabbed-in-new-york-17175098%2F%3Fito%3Darticle.mweb.share.top.twitter

[Noah Sombrero]

On Fri, 12 Aug 2022 17:04:39 +0100, Julian <julia...@gmail.com>
wrote:

>read://https_metro.co.uk/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2022%2F08%2F12%2Fauthor-salman-rushdie-stabbed-in-new-york-17175098%2F%3Fito%3Darticle.mweb.share.top.twitter

That url does not compute. I was able to manhandle it into usability.
salman got complacent about old muslim threats. Better he should
simply stay home. Not that there is any justice in that necessity.
--
Noah Sombrero

[Sanford Manley]

If he stays home, he stops living and the terrorists win.
Would you allow them or someone else to threaten you into
isolation?

--
The AnsaMan
Pod Brother and
Evil Right-Wing Militarist

[Wilson]

Noah is always ready, willing and able to tell other people what they
should do.

[Noah Sombrero]

On Fri, 12 Aug 2022 14:15:00 -0400, Sanford Manley <ans...@gmail.com>
wrote:

My living does not require me to sit on a stage in front of a large
crowd. I would risk going out for an oh henry and a dr pepper. Once
in a while.

Especially if I were a writer of books, and so spent much of my time
in isolation anyway.
--
Noah Sombrero

[Noah Sombrero]

I have had no communication with salman.
--
Noah Sombrero

[Julian]

...when he's not telling people what they think and mean.

[Julian]

On 12/08/2022 17:04, Julian wrote:
> read://https_metro.co.uk/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2022%2F08%2F12%2Fauthor-salman-rushdie-stabbed-in-new-york-17175098%2F%3Fito%3Darticle.mweb.share.top.twitter
>

The shameful attack on Salman Rushdie

What happened in New York today is indescribably appalling


We are all praying that Salman Rushdie will be okay. What happened in
Chautauqua in New York today is indescribably appalling. An author, a
man, stabbed in the neck just as he was about to speak on freedom of
expression. This attack is a vile affront to liberty and to the
principles of an open society.

Much remains unknown. We don’t know what condition Rushdie is in: he was
last seen being carried on a stretcher to an air ambulance. And we don’t
know anything about the attacker or the motivation. But there are things
we do know. We know that for more than 30 years Rushdie has lived in the
shadow of a despicable fatwa issued by Iran. We know that Rushdie became
Public Enemy No. 1 for many radical Islamists following the publication
of his novel The Satanic Verses. And we know that, far too often,
intellectuals here in the West failed to make a full-throated defence of
Rushdie’s freedom of expression. It is our pressing duty now to reflect
on all of this.

It remains to be seen whether Rushdie’s attacker was inspired by the
fatwa: whether they were simply crazy or deluded in a way that had
nothing to do with religion. But it is the threat of precisely this kind
of attack that has overshadowed Rushdie’s life since first becoming
victim to the 1989 attempt to silence him. In a world in which many
people, from Islamists to identitarians, assume they have a right not to
be offended, it was only a matter of time before physical force was used
against those who offend.

That was always the chilling thing about Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa
against Rushdie. It actually chimed with developments here in the West.
It looked and sounded like an alien edict – what kind of society calls
on people to ‘kill without delay’ a man whose only crime was to write a
novel? – and yet it sat creepily well with a growing conviction in
Western society that it is unacceptable to offend minority groups and
religions.

Iran’s issuing of the fatwa coincided with our own institutionalisation
of the idea of 'Islamophobia' – the idea that criticising a religion
should be ranked alongside racism as a form of bigotry. So from the East
we had a severe religious elder issuing a death warrant for a writer who
allegedly insulted Islam, while here at home we had respectable thinkers
and activists telling us it is ‘phobic’ and maybe even socially
destabilising to insult Islam.

Both old-world religious hotheads and Oxbridge-educated liberals ended
up saying the same thing: don’t insult Islam. And if you do, we will
punish you – either with death (Iran’s preferred outcome) or expulsion
from campuses and social media and polite society (our own cancel
culture’s preferred outcome).

This was always the strange pincer movement that Rushdie has been
squeezed by. Intolerant Iranian officials on one side, cowardly Western
intellectuals on the other, both failing, in different ways, to defend
Rushdie’s fundamental right to use his creative imagination to whatever
ends he wished. Rushdie may have been horribly menaced by Iranian
extremists, but he was let down, far too frequently, by supposed
liberals here in the West. The latter, in some ways, is more
unforgivable than the former.

We will know soon whether today’s grim act of violence is related to the
fatwa, but let us wait to find out. However, let us not wait before we
assert, loudly and unapologetically, that freedom of expression is the
most important right in a civilised society. That the right of the
individual to think and say and write whatever he pleases must always
take precedence over other people’s right not to be offended.

Salman, all good people wish you the speediest of recoveries. May you
soon return to writing anything that you want to write. And let us hope
that an army of freedom-lovers will defend you as you do so



Brendan O’Neill

[Julian]

On 12/08/2022 17:04, Julian wrote:
> read://https_metro.co.uk/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2022%2F08%2F12%2Fauthor-salman-rushdie-stabbed-in-new-york-17175098%2F%3Fito%3Darticle.mweb.share.top.twitter
>

The best response to Salman Rushdie’s stabbing



The attack on Salman Rushdie on-stage in New York is deeply shocking and
sadly not surprising. People have been calling for his death for over
three decades, ever since the publication of his 1988 novel The Satanic
Verses. That novel led to a fatwa from the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran
and the Iranian government putting a bounty on the British author´s
head. They were encouraged in this by Muslim leaders in Britain. The
repercussions for Rushdie were swift.

Rushdie himself went into hiding, protected by the security services of
the British state at the behest of Margaret Thatcher´s government. He
stayed in hiding for many years, during which time there were numerous
attempts on his life, including from an Iranian agent who blew himself
up in London. The novel´s Japanese translator – Hitoshi Igarashi – was
stabbed and killed. The Norwegian publisher of the novel was shot
outside his home in Oslo.

Then, during the years of the last Labour government in Britain, a
compromise of a kind appeared to have been reached. The Iranian
government said they would no longer encourage attacks on Rushdie but
nor would they impede them. Later they changed tack again saying that
the fatwa remained in place. Various scholars said that it wouldn´t
matter anyway, because the only person who could rescind the fatwa was
the person who had issued it, and he was dead.

Nevertheless, in recent years Rushdie has been able to come out of
hiding and lead what seemed like a comparatively normal life. He has
appeared at public events, and the last time I saw him I was struck by
the fact that he seemed to be moving around like anyone else. But
clearly the threat never went away. There are plenty of radicalised
Muslims in America as there are in Britain who do not need a late
Ayatollah´s word to try to institute Islamic blasphemy laws in our
societies. In 1989, crowds in Bradford were allowed to burn the novel
and call for Rushdie´s death. The pop singer Cat Stevens (newly
converted to Islam) was allowed to wish violence on him on live television.

It must be said that Rushdie has dealt with all this and more
heroically. He does not complain about his lot. He does not make himself
into a victim. Instead he has displayed the simple qualities of a hero.
In a recent series of Curb Your Enthusiasm he even joked about it. Most
impressive, perhaps, was that his well of creativity has never been
dimmed. From Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990) right up to his
forthcoming Victory City the assaults of the illiterate on him and his
work never managed to stop that work.

The attack onstage in New York today is still a subject of confusion.
Initial reports said the author had walked off stage with assistance.
Now it appears that his assailant stabbed him in the neck. Rushdie has
been helicoptered to hospital and is currently be fighting for his life.

In his 2012 memoir – Joseph Anton – Rushdie wrote about the fatwa years.
The book is a detailed chronicle of all the people who let him down: the
MPs who promised support and then whipped up mobs; the political figures
of left and right who said that while the Ayatollah may have caused an
offence so had the novelist; the authorities who allowed Muslims in
Bradford and others on television to call for a British subject´s murder
with impunity.

But it is also a chronicle of the people who supported him, the friends
who stood by him and the public figures who stood up for him. One of
them was the American writer Susan Sontag, who helped organise a public
reading of Rushdie´s work in New York. As Sontag said, the moment called
for some basic 'civic courage'. It is striking how much of that civic
courage has evaporated in recent years. Today no one would be able to
write – much less get published – a novel like The Satanic Verses.
Perhaps nobody has tried. From novels to cartoons a de facto Islamic
blasphemy law settled across the West in the wake of the Rushdie affair.
The attack today will doubtless exacerbate that.

So apart from willing, wishing or praying for Rushdie´s recovery, the
only other thing that can be done now is to display that civic courage
that Sontag called for three decades ago. The Satanic Verses is a
complex but brilliant novel. It includes an hilarious and devastating
reimagining of the origins of the Quran. I hope that people will read
it, and read from it, more than ever. Because what happened in New York
today cannot be allowed to win. The illiterate cannot be allowed to
dictate the rules of literature. The enemies of free expression cannot
be allowed to quash it. The attacker should get exactly the opposite of
the response he will have hoped for. Not just hopefully a failure to
silence Rushdie, but a failure to limit what the rest of us are allowed
to think, read, hear and say.


Douglas Murray

https://book4you.org/book/1114769/eac5bf

[Stephane Guenette]

On Friday, 12 August 2022 at 12:41:07 UTC-6, Julian wrote:

"An author, a man, was stabbed in the neck just as he was about to speak on freedom of

expression. This attack is a vile affront to liberty and to the principles of an open society."

Temper tantrum follower of a God of Temper Tantrums
i.e., sorrowfully ego trapped, both of 'em


Hat-wearing
Unclean bird
Queen of all people
Who crawl on the ground
Encourages them enter
Two by two
Male and female
Into the church

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrL09bPV3d4

[Noah Sombrero]

On Fri, 12 Aug 2022 19:36:59 +0100, Julian <julia...@gmail.com>
wrote:

You think you are cute.
--
Noah Sombrero

[Julian]

He hurts someone's feelings, is being stabbed in the neck with the
intention of killing him not entirely appropriate?

[Wilson]

But he's right!

[Wilson]

Well, no kidding. That was almost certainly the point.

[Noah Sombrero]

You think he is.
--
Noah Sombrero

[Julian]

And... And he's right.

[Noah Sombrero]

On Fri, 12 Aug 2022 21:43:31 +0100, Julian <julia...@gmail.com>

You think that one is only precious. One step below cute.
--
Noah Sombrero

[Wilson]

On 8/12/2022 2:48 PM, Julian wrote:
> On 12/08/2022 17:04, Julian wrote:
>> read://https_metro.co.uk/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2022%2F08%2F12%2Fauthor-salman-rushdie-stabbed-in-new-york-17175098%2F%3Fito%3Darticle.mweb.share.top.twitter
>

> https://book4you.org/book/1114769/eac5bf


“No, I don't think it's fair to label Islam 'violent.' But I will say
that to my knowledge, no writer has ever gone into hiding for
criticizing the Amish.”
- Salman Rushdie

[Julian]

"Those who are determined to be 'offended' will discover a provocation
somewhere. We cannot possibly adjust enough to please the fanatics, and
it is degrading to make the attempt."

Christopher Hitchens

[Sanford Manley]

He hasn't seen the movies with the high-speed buggy chases
and the part where they imprison the hero by having fifty
guys build a building around him in a half-an hour.

[Wilson]

That barn building prison thing is supposed to be a secret.

[Julian]

On 12/08/2022 17:04, Julian wrote:
> read://https_metro.co.uk/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2022%2F08%2F12%2Fauthor-salman-rushdie-stabbed-in-new-york-17175098%2F%3Fito%3Darticle.mweb.share.top.twitter
>

Iran can’t shirk the blame for the attack on Salman Rushdie



So according to Iran it is Salman Rushdie's own fault that he got
stabbed. It had nothing to do with the vile death warrant issued by
Iran’s own ayatollah in 1989. It’s unrelated to the fact that the fatwa
was reaffirmed in 2005. It’s not because Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
once said ‘the day will come when (Muslims) will punish the apostate
Rushdie for his scandalous acts and insults against the Koran’. No, it’s
all Salman’s fault for – you guessed it – ‘insulting the sacred matters
of Islam’. He brought that terrible knife attack upon himself.

It is hard to think of a more despicable response to the alleged
attempted murder of Rushdie than this. For more than three decades Iran
has dangled a death sentence over Rushdie’s head. A death sentence which
expressly says that ‘all brave Muslims of the world’ have a duty to kill
Rushdie and his publishers ‘without delay’. Yet when someone allegedly
tries to do just that, Iran throws its hands in the air and says:
‘Nothing to do with us.’

This cynical, juvenile attempt to swerve moral responsibility for the
attack on Rushdie was made by Iran’s foreign ministry. Its spokesperson,
Nasser Kanaani, says Iran ‘categorically’ denies any link to Friday’s
attack.

‘No one has the right to accuse the Islamic Republic of Iran’, he
claimed, like a bull in a china shop wondering what happened to all the
plates.

The response of Iran’s media to the assault on Rushdie tells a different
story. They are taking pride in Iran’s role in singling Rushdie out for
religious murder. One outlet called the attack ‘divine retribution’.
State broadcaster, Jaam-e Jam, grotesquely responded to the news that
Rushdie might lose an eye by saying ‘an eye of the Satan has been blinded’.

Iran’s shirking of culpability is also undermined by some of the claims
being made about the suspect, Hadi Matar. His exact motivation remains
unclear, but Vice News is reporting that he had some kind of contact
with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards before the attack, though there
is no suggestion Iran was directly involved.

So, yes, we do have the right, Mr Kanaani, to accuse the Islamic
Republic of Iran. To postulate that your extant fatwa played a role in
what happened to Rushdie. To insist that it was a crime against
civilisation for you to put a target sign on the head of a man whose
only ‘crime’ was to write a novel you found offensive.

Iran’s arrogant dismissal of the idea that it might bear some
responsibility for this violent assault is shocking. But doesn’t it also
sound familiar? It feels like a global act of victim-blaming. Iran is
essentially saying that free speech has consequences, and that Rushdie
has just experienced some of those consequences. This sounds eerily, and
scarily, like a lot of what we hear in the West these days.

‘(We) do not consider anyone other than Salman Rushdie and his
supporters worthy of blame and even condemnation’, says Mr Kanaani. By
crossing the ‘red lines’ of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims, Rushdie
‘exposed himself to the anger and rage of the people’, he continued.

Really, he’s talking about ‘consequence culture’. This is the chilling
idea that has taken hold in right-on circles in the US and the UK in
recent years. It argues that you can say anything you want but there
might be consequences. You could lose your job, lose your income, get
thrown off social media, get hounded out of polite society. ‘Free speech
has consequences!’, the cancel-culture set will say as they watch and
cheer the punishment of someone for saying something ‘bad’.

I have always found the phrase ‘free speech has consequences’ deeply
disturbing. The only consequence that the exercise of free speech should
have is more speech. Disagreement, debate, ridicule, mockery: these are
perfectly legitimate consequences of free speech. They’re good
consequences, in fact, in that they ignite debate.

But getting sacked? Being No Platformed? Being harassed? Being subjected
to constant abuse, as someone like JK Rowling often is? Only those of an
authoritarian bent would view these as legitimate ‘consequences’ of free
speech. In these contexts, ‘consequence’ really means punishment. ‘Free
speech has consequences’ translates into: ‘You can say it if you want
to, but we will destroy you for doing so’. ‘Consequence culture’ is a
fancy term for censure and intolerance.

And now the Iranian regime is at it. If Rushdie hadn’t crossed certain
‘red lines’, he’d have been fine, it is saying. All he’s experiencing is
the consequences of his own speech.

The ‘consequences’ promoted by Western radicals might be less dramatic
and less violent than the ‘consequences’ promoted by Iranian theocrats
and other Islamists. But they’re bound together by a creepy belief that
it is legitimate to punish people for expressing themselves, whether by
hurting their bank balances or hurting their bodies. Enough. Respond to
speech with speech, not your life-ruining or life-ending metaphorical
‘consequences’.


Brendan O’Neill