It was beyond terrorism: The anniversary of Salman Rushdie

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Now it’s a year since a devotee of the Islamic Republic in Tehran proved the consistency of the Islamic rulings (Fatwas) to the world. One year ago, in Chautauqua, New York, a 24-year-old boy stabbed Salman Rushdie, the British-Indian writer who was announced as “blood wasted” in 1989 by Ayatollah Khomeini, the supreme leader and the head of the state of Iran.

“Blood wasted” is such a terrifying phrase. Even if you know nothing about Islam, using the words waste and blood together cannot bring any happy assumption to your mind. I remember in November 2019, on the first Friday after the Bloody Aban, I was present in the Friday prayer as a journalist to cover Imam Joma’s speech, or with the official title,” the representative of the guardian jurist.”

This Imam was famous because he was the intelligence minister at the summit of Chain murders in Iran. Under his mandate, five Iranian activists and authors got murdered in 18 days! So, It wasn’t surprising for me when he said,” Those who took action against the Islamic sovereignty, their bloods are wasted.”

The history of my country has seen lots of blood wasted people. But a lawyer named Ahmad Kasravi was our primary interest in discussing the Islamic classes (Mandatory for every student) with the high school teachers and university professors.

Kasravi was assassinated in 1946 by a hardliner Islamic group that Khomeini always adulated. The irony is, although it happened under the rule of the Shah and years before the Islamic Republic era, the killer was pardoned because he was killed a blood wasted.

Not to say, It sounded like a spotless legal murder for our tutors in school and university. They believed as far as a source of imitation (a high-ranked Ayatollah) orders, you can kill anyone. And in the case of Islam’s blatant desecration, there is no need for a fatwa or any edict. Any Muslim has the duty to kill the offender as soon as possible. Hence, they didn’t mourn Charlie Hebdo.

Salman Rushdie, Ahmad Kasravi, the protesters, Charlie Hebdo, and even girls with out-marriage relations are all categorized as blood wasted. This verdict is actually the line between Islam’s capability and incapability in the modern world. Permission to kill someone is not acceptable in the 21st century.

The assassination of Salman Rushdie was beyond terrorism because something we call terrorism is a modern phenomenon that belongs to after 1789. But the intentions, or perhaps better say traditions behind his murder fatwa, are far older. However, such actions can also use for terrorism purposes and be successful in that matter. Today in Denmark and Sweden, politicians seek legal tools to prohibit burning sacred texts. Obviously, It’s not for keeping respect; it’s because of their fear and terror.