Monday, November 15, 2004

Author speaks out, marries.

Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie has called on [the American] Congress to remove anti-terror laws which allow US officials to monitor citizens' reading habits. Rushdie, 56, said he was concerned by government bodies "noseying into what should be personal creative space". He presented a 180,000-name petition asking Congress to repeal portions of the Patriot Act which give access to book-buying and library records.

Fat chance infidel. I don't think you want to be talking to them like that. You might want to tone it down a bit. I would'nt want to see you get yanked off a plane if you know what I'm saying....

But later in the same article, a shocking revelation...

Rushdie married Indian actress Padma Lakshmi in April.

What? How come we did'nt get that at the beginning of the article. I thought they busted up. He referred to her as an air-head in an interview which I don't imagine went over too well. She speaks five languages you know. Married? Wow did'nt see that one coming.

So, how does Cat Stevens/Yusef Islam figures into all this?

Apparently Rushdie was miffed when Mr. Islam did not denounce the Fatwah placed on him by the Ayatollah Khomeini after he published the Satanic Verses and other works, which the Ayatollah deemed blasphemy. Mr. Islam's (apparent) failure to condemn the Fatwah led many to believe he approved of it.

In summary, you have one group who wants to kill an author for writing the wrong book, another group that wants to arrest a reader for reading the wrong book. This can't turn out well.
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