Mark Humphrys (politics)

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Iran - Salman Rushdie





  The fatwa of 1989

Fake Rushdie quote

Rushdie is knighted, 2007

Cat Stevens




Salman Rushdie

The death threats against the left-winger Salman Rushdie in 1989 were in retrospect the start of the modern international jihad against all of us.

Salman Rushdie was the "canary in the coalmine" of the modern global jihad.












Salman Rushdie reads from "The Satanic Verses".
At the PEN American Center on April 26, 2006.
Broadcast in "Faith and Reason", with Bill Moyers, Season 1, Episode 5, PBS, 22 July 2006. Start at 47:50.
This is a witty, highly intelligent and profound attack on the absurd origins of all religions.
Every religious person should listen to this and think about it.



The scene "He has given us... His shoe!" in Monty Python's Life of Brian also depicts the absurd origins of all religions.





The fatwa of 1989



Click to buy The Satanic Verses.





Fake Rushdie quote

For some reason, people like attaching fake quotes to Rushdie's name. Rushdie himself dealt with this issue in Sept 2014: "That is a fake quote. There are quite a few of those in circulation. Read my books, not the internet."
  


An odd story in Nov 2014: A fake Rushdie quote and a shitstorm of abuse from a "pro-Israel" person.
First, the fake quote: Second, the loony "pro-Israel" person:








A similar case:
Anti-jihadist Patrick Hostis posts an image in June 2016 claimed to be of a child bride.
I pointed out it is actually of a Quran recital contest.
He did not thank me. Rather he blocked me.



 




Rushdie is knighted, 2007




Cat Stevens







Cat Stevens on "Hypotheticals", British Granada TV, 1989.
Geoffrey Robertson: "You don't think that this man deserves to die?"
Cat Stevens: "Who, Salman Rushdie?"
Geoffrey Robertson: "Yes."
Cat Stevens: "Yes, yes."
Geoffrey Robertson: "And do you have a duty to be his executioner?"
Cat Stevens: "No, not necessarily, unless we were in an Islamic state and I was ordered by a judge or by the authority to carry out such an act - perhaps, yes."
Geoffrey Robertson: "Would you be part of that protest, Yusuf Islam? Would you go to a demonstration where you knew that an effigy [of Salman Rushdie] was going to be burnt?"
Cat Stevens: "I would have hoped that it would be the real thing."
From archive.org.




More on the Rushdie affair

  



The song "Ay Naghi!" (2012) by Iranian artist Shahin Najafi (now living in freedom in Germany).
Shia Islamic religious maniacs say the song is offensive towards the 9th century AD Shia Imam Ali an-Naqi.
An Iranian Ayatollah issued a death sentence against the artist in May 2012.
An Iranian state newspaper called for all Muslims everywhere to kill him.





Politics      Religion      Since 1995.      New 250 G VPS server.


Banned in Iran: This site is banned in Iran.

Blocked on Twitter by the regressive left and Islamists: I love debate. I love ideas. But the Western left and their friends the Islamic right do not return the favour. Their response to opposing ideas, whether expressed politely or robustly, is often to block. See Who blocks me on Twitter.

I like debate. But I do have rules. See Who I block on Twitter.

Twitter is broken, 2016 to 2022: I am on Twitter at markhumphrys. Twitter was a great place for debate before 2016. You could meet everyone in the world, and argue about ideas. Starting in 2016, Twitter became increasingly broken. It became full of reporting and bans and censorship. In 2019, Twitter even started shadowbanning me for no reason that was ever explained, or could be appealed. By 2022, everyone was looking for a better place to debate.

Twitter is saved, 2022: In 2022 Elon Musk bought Twitter and started to end the censorship. It looks great so far. Twitter seems to be saved.

Campaigns to silence me: I now have no less than two entries on the Banned List at Academics for Academic Freedom. This is a list of "individuals who were banned from speaking at universities in the UK and Ireland, or faced campaigns to silence them, or sack them for their views." The two campaigns to silence me were the BLM protests (unsuccessful) and the Israel debate (partially successful, in that it drove the debate off campus).