Fatwa On!

Here's a story about Iran that didn't get much attention in comparison to the news about Iran's nuclear ambitions and posturing. It adds just a little bit more context to consider the West's opposition to Iran becoming a nuclear power and helps demonstrate why Iran is still a dangerous nation.

In February, Iran's Revolutionary Guards, a hard-line military organization, loyal to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared the fatwa imposing a death sentence on British author Salman Rushdie is still valid and was "irrevocable." Considered the worst book review ever, the fatwa was issued against Rushdie for the publication of his "blasphemous" novel "The Satanic Verses." A month earlier, Ayatollah Khamenei said he still believed the British novelist deserved to die.

The whole situation seemed to be resolved in 1998, when Tehran promised the British Government that Iran would do nothing to implement the fatwa against Rusdhie who is a British citizen.

However, last year the 15 Khordad Foundation, a CHARITABLE FOUNDATION which has placed a $2.8m bounty on Rushdie's head announced the fatwa was still valid.

So basically, Iran is a country where CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONS can pay to have someone killed. ASTOUNDING! I mean, can you imagine if the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation stopped just funding public television and poetry festivals and started putting contracts on people?

FOUNDATION HEAD: What? The NEA cut your grant? Fatwa on! Get me an enforcer.