From: Bill Stewart <bill.stewart@pobox.com>
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1998 23:56:49 +0800
To: NMIR <cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: [salman rushdie]
In-Reply-To: <19980925192238.27047.qmail@www0n.netaddress.usa.net>
Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19980926215457.00ad1510@idiom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 08:22 PM 9/25/98 BST, NMIR wrote:
>Does anyone have any idea what this guy is on about?.
If you mean "Why does Bill P rant like that", not my problem.

But if you mean "Is the Fatwa against Salman Rushdie over?",
the news has been that the Iranian government has decided
to drop their ~$2M reward for killing him.  That doesn't mean
all of the mullahs have stopped calling for Muslims to
kill him for blasphemy.  But at least the government has
decided good relationships with the Brits are more important
than keeping their more fanatical fanatics happy.
Rushdie was quoted in the press as being very relieved.

If there's cypherpunks relevance to this, it's that cryptographic
privacy and digital cash payments make it easier to publish
controversial material without the threat of violence against you.

		Bill Stewart


>---
>ABQ J 9/24/98 
>Iran May Withdraw
>Writer's Death Threat
>
>LONDON - Author Salman
>Rushdie met with British Foreign
>Office officials Wednesday amid
>reports Iran is preparing to
>withdraw the threat on his life.
>The late Ayatollah Ruhollah
>Khomeini pronounced a "fatwa," death sentence, 
>against Rushdie in
>1989 after the publication of his
>book "Satanic Verses," which many
>Muslims deemed blasphemous.
>Islamic militants then put a $2
>million bounty on Rushdie's head,
>forcing the author to live largely in
>under British police protection.
>---
>
>I THINK that I heard tonight and saw 
>Rushie's picture on TV that the above
>was called off.