An Iranian volunteer martyrdom group has enlisted some 10,000 people for suicide attacks against Israel, US forces in Iraq, and … Salman Rushdie. (Thanks to all who emailed.)

TEHRAN - Thousands of Iranians have signed up for suicide attacks on Israel, U.S.-led forces in Iraq and British author Salman Rushdie, a recruiting group said on Saturday. …

The father of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, condemned Rushdie to death in 1989 for alleged blasphemy in his novel “The Satanic Verses.”

“Some 10,000 people have registered their names to carry out martyrdom operations on our defined targets,” said Mohammad Ali Samadi, a spokesman for the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign. But he said the group would need the green light from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to launch the attacks.

The independent group said it started to register Iranian men and women prepared to carry out the attacks after Friday prayers last week and sent forms to religious universities. “Our targets are mainly the occupying American and British forces in the holy Iraqi cities, all the Zionists in Palestine, and Salman Rushdie,” he said.

“It is not our fault that the Zionists have brought their wives and children to the occupied territories and have turned them into shields for themselves,” he added, when asked about the killing of civilians. [Notice the rudimentary awareness of the concept of “human shields” … just enough awareness to twist the definition and use it as a rhetorical weapon against Israel. —ed.]

“Salman Rushdie is the only non-military target for us, because we believe his attack against Islam was much worse than a military assault,” the spokesman said.

Hardline cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati urged worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran to attack U.S. and British interests.

“It is the duty of every Muslim to threaten U.S. and British interests anywhere,” he said.

Anyone asked Cat Stevens Yusuf Islam what he thinks about this?

In the first week of the fatwa against Rushdie and his book, I appeared on a television panel. Among the Muslim panelists, all of whom favored condemning the book, were two zealots: the same Kalim Siddiqui; and Yusuf Islam, the Muslim convert pop singer of Greek Cypriot origin formerly known as Cat Stevens. The moderator asked if, in my role as a commissioning editor of Channel 4 UK, I would contemplate turning The Satanic Verses into a film. I said that I would judge the cinematic merits of the script, and that no other consideration would rule it out. Kalim Siddiqui and Yusuf Islam snarled, warning that the sentence of death on Rushdie would extend to all those who forwarded his book in any way.

We had all come from London to Manchester to record the “discussion.” The producer had a word with me when it was over: would I feel more comfortable if he changed my hotel, away from the threateners and their entourage?

Ride on the Religion of Peace Train, baby.