Award-winning author Salman Rushdie has expressed his support for satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo after a terrorist attack attack. Gunmen killed at least 12 people in the newspaper’s office on Wednesday. Rushdie had once received fatwa, a death threats for portrayals of Islam in his novel.
Rushdie wrote in a statement posted by the Guardian. In
his statement Rushdie says, “I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to
defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against
tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity.”
“Religion, a medieval form of unreason, when combined
with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms,” Rushie wrote. “This
religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam
and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today.”
In 1988, some conservative Muslims accused Rushdie’s
fourth novel, The Satantic Verses, of blasphemy and insulting Islam. Rushdie
received death threats and Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, then the Supreme Leader
of Iran, issued a fatwa for his death the following year.
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