roachboy

the question of "the satanic verses" and khomeni's fatwa is interesting--all the more so if you've actually read the book...because if you read it, you find that there is both a heretical element (involving the scribe who takes down mohammed's words changing them on the way, testing mohammed, figuring that if he was divinely inspried, he would notice the changes--you can see why this would be a problem, if you know anything about islam) and political satire directed against khomeni himself--so the reasons for the fatwa are more complicated than you might imagine.

i was appalled at the fatwa, but i would not go so far as to say that if cat stevens endorsed it in some way (on what basis i do not know--is he shi'a?) that that would make him a "terrorist"--the connection seems completely ridiculous--coming from a country made up of municipalities that ban books for so much less, of people who are quite sure about why a film like f911 is evil without having seen it, that confuse dissent with treason...

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite