The satanic versus the supine

In response to the attempted murder of Salman Rushdie, the west should stop grovelling to Iran

Registration of Christian boys for Muslim tribute; Ottoman painting, 1558

On February 14 1989 Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa calling for the killing of the novelist Salman Rushdie. The reason was the publication of his novel, The Satanic Verses, which satirised Islam. On Friday, this murderous Iranian command finally hit its target. 

At a literary event in New York, an American Muslim of Lebanese descent attacked Sir Salman Rushdie on stage and stabbed him multiple times in an attempt to murder him. Rushdie is now in hospital where doctors are fighting to deal with his injuries which include damage to his liver, the tendons of his arm and the sight of one eye.

His would-be assassin, Hadi Matar, had reportedly been using a fake driver’s licence under the name Hassan Mughniyah.  The current leader of Iran’s proxy army Hezbollah is named Hassan Nasrallah, while its most notorious terrorist mastermind was called Imad Mughniyeh. Matar’s now-deleted Facebook page was said to have been plastered with pictures of Iranian politicians.

Could the message for the free world be any clearer? But are those who need to draw the appropriate conclusions yet prepared to draw them? For fingers need to point not just at Matar or the Iranian regime, but also at the supine west.