Iran's Public Enemy #1 comes to the defense of an endangered woman
The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie-you remember him, right? The guy Iran's revolutionary Islamic government has wanted dead for nearly two decades now?-has teamed with Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith and Letter To A Christian Nation (two of the must-read books on the atheists' best-seller list these days), to write this very eloquent column calling the government of Holland/the Netherlands to account for basically abandoning an Islamic female member of their own Parliament to the threat of death from radical Muslims, after having promised her protection "whenever and wherever she needed it." It appears in my local paper today, but only in its dead-tree edition; the linked copy is from the Los Angeles Times.
Rushdie is currently a Distinguished Writer in Residence at our biggest college here, Emory University. One can certainly understand his sympathy for anyone charged with the "crime" of publicly speaking truth about militant traditionalist Islam-and about the West's abject and utter failure to respond effectively to threats emanating therefrom. And Harris, of course, has evinced even more contempt for religion in general than some believe Rushdie to have for his own; so one must stipulate that both men may have political axes to grind. That being said, however, if what they allege about the conduct of the Dutch government and its leaders in this affair is even half true, it is reprehensible regardless.
Rushdie is currently a Distinguished Writer in Residence at our biggest college here, Emory University. One can certainly understand his sympathy for anyone charged with the "crime" of publicly speaking truth about militant traditionalist Islam-and about the West's abject and utter failure to respond effectively to threats emanating therefrom. And Harris, of course, has evinced even more contempt for religion in general than some believe Rushdie to have for his own; so one must stipulate that both men may have political axes to grind. That being said, however, if what they allege about the conduct of the Dutch government and its leaders in this affair is even half true, it is reprehensible regardless.