From: Martin McClellan <martin@rosacordis.com>Frankly, I find the right (and write) to offend and be offended inalienable.But because the response of Khomeini was so radically disproportionate to the so-called crime, that makes Rushdie a victim. Khomeini could have called for all muslims to ban, protest, or burn the book, but he didn't. He put a price on Rushdie's head. That, in any civilized society, is not a viable prerogative, and as soon as he made such a (and it's worth saying again) radically disproportionate response to the offense, that makes Rusdie the victim, and you're still blaming him.
If there had been a legal avenue to prosecute Rushdie then it would have been "disproportionate" for the fatwah, but Rushdie did all he could (whether it was publisher led or not) to exclude a legal route
How about this as an analogy, a stranger walks into my pub tonight, one of the regulars walk up to my landlord and say "I really like you, dont be offended by anything I say in the next 5 minutes" and then goes up to the stranger and say "your god is a fucking arsehole, your whole life is based on total shite, fuck you"
I mean, as someone who was brought up as a christian, I would obviously turn the other cheek, but really, who could blame anyone for taking the lippy cunt regular outside and beating the shit out of him ?
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