This is not a resurgence of violent Islamism. No, it is simply one other screwed-up younger American man, the determine of our age.
“The assault on Salman Rushdie on-stage in New York is deeply surprising and sadly not stunning,” Douglas Murray, the final neocon, writes in The Spectator, profitable the gold medal for getting out a Rushdie take just a few hours after the occasion. Murray’s judgment is a typical half-truth. Surprising the assault was, however stunning too.
The attacker got here not merely out of the group however out of the early 2000s, the final time that violent Islamism appeared like a world, all-encompassing menace. The Iranian authorities had backed off assist of the fatwa issued towards Rushdie by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989, saying it will “neither assist nor hinder” anybody making an attempt to pursue it — a declaration given as a part of a deal restoring diplomatic relations with the UK. However the fatwa remained in place, was renewed by Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s religious chief, and its money worth was elevated by personal donors.
The stunning factor was that there hadn’t been extra makes an attempt — any makes an attempt we have heard of — within the interim, as Rushdie disbursed with safety. The stunning factor was that it has occurred once more now.
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