Day of Prayer: Muslims Raging Worldwide

Fri, Jun 22, 2007 at 7:48:18 am PDT

It’s the day of prayer for Muslims, and that means worldwide rage over Sir Salman Rushdie, as Islamic leaders incite their followers with calls for Rushdie’s death: Rushdie fatwa looms again amid new protests.

“In Islamic Iran, the revolutionary fatwa issued by Imam Khomeini remains valid and cannot be modified,” leading Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Ahmad Khatami said during his Friday prayers sermon in Tehran.

“The old and decrepit government of Great Britain should know that the era of their empire is over and today they are a valet in the service of the United States,” Khatami added.

Khomeini’s successor as supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in January 2005 he still believed the British novelist was an apostate whose killing would be authorised by Islam. ...

Business in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, ground to a halt Friday as traders heeded calls by Islamic militants to strike over the award. Shops in the main market were shuttered following the call by hardline separatist group Jamiat-ul-Mujahedin, although there was little impact in other parts of Kashmir.

“The Kashmiri nation has to rise in one voice to show resentment against the shameful decision (to award the knighthood) by observing a complete shutdown,” said Jamiat spokesman Jameel Ahmed.

In Pakistan, demonstrators took to the streets in several cities. Around 300 people in Islamabad, watched over by riot police carrying batons and shields, chanted “Our struggle will continue until Salman Rushdie is killed!”

“Britain must withdraw the knighthood and hand Rushdie to Pakistan to be punished under Islamic laws,” Fazalur Rehman, a pro-Taliban cleric and leader of the parliamentary opposition, told the protesters.

With a special appearance by Islamic Rage Boy: