IRIB: "If Rushdie was executed, no one may dare to insult Prophet"

I am constantly amazed by what Iran takes the trouble to have translated into English. Such an effort to educate us about how loony they are! From Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting:

Leader of the Lebanese popular resistance movement Hezbollah asserted in remarks published Thursday that if Muslims had executed British novelist Salman Rushdie others would not dare to insult Islam.

The late founder of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa or religious edict in 1989 demanding Rushdie's execution over his novel the "satanic verses," for its blasphemous nature and insulting to the Prophet Mohammed.

"If there had been a Muslim to carry out Imam Khomeini's fatwa against the renegade Salman Rushdie, this rabble who insult our Prophet Mohammed in Denmark, Norway and France would not have dared to do so," Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said.

Remember Theo van Gogh? This sort of thing actually encouraged the creation and publishing of the cartoons.

"I am sure there are millions of Muslims who are ready to give their lives to defend our prophet's honour and we have to be ready to do anything for that," said Nasrallah.

"We do not understand the rationale of the Danish authorities who refuse to apologize under the pretext of freedom of expression."

Renegade Rushdie had to go into hiding after Imam Khomeini deemed him an apostate who had to be punished by death.

If he had to go into hiding merely for being an apostate, the reason seemingly given here, that really makes them sound bad. I wonder if they have any idea how this sounds to the outside world.


Update: Elder of Ziyon offers another powered-by-IRIB post.

Tags: Denmark, prophet-cartoons, cartoons, IRIB, Rushdie