Every now and then, Rushdie's name would pop up in the news, usually linked with the ongoing fatwa, and I would think, "Huh. This was 12 years before 9/11, the Soviets were just wrapping up their war in Afghanistan, the CIA either was or wasn't cozy with Bin Laden, and I had no reason to believe that a leader of a different faith, speaking from the other side of the world, could affect me. I was in my early 20's when the Ayatollah Khomeini issued his fatwa against Salman Rushdie, declaring that the author should be executed for the blasphemy of The Satanic Verses, and it really didn't affect me.
It was an idea, and ideas stood (or fell) because they were strong enough (or too weak) to withstand criticism, not because they were shielded from it. When did it become irrational to dislike religion, any religion, even to dislike it vehemently? When did reason get redescribed as unreason? When were the fairy stories of the superstitious placed above criticism, beyond satire? A religion was not a race.
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