In September 1988, the Indian-born British writer Salman Rushdie published "The Satanic Verses," a novel containing what some saw as an irreverent depiction of the prophet Muhammad. In February 1989 - exactly 10 years after leading Iran's Islamic Revolution - the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling the book "blasphemous" and offering a bounty for Mr. Rushdie's murder.
One month later, Britain broke relations with Iran. But most other nations responded fecklessly, if at all. And in 1998, Britain restored relations with Iran after its rulers offered a meaningless promise: They would "neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie" undertaken in response to the ayatollah's decree. Seven years later, the fatwa was reaffirmed by the Ayatollah Khomeini's successor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making the haj to Mecca. Since then, Iran's Revolutionary Guards also have declared the death sentence valid.
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