Salman Rushdie Afghanistan, which began in 2001, but was a vocal critic of the 2003 war in Iraq. He has stated that while there was a "case to be made for the removal of Saddam Hussein", US unilateral military intervention was unjustifiable. In the wake of the "Jyllands-Posten" Muhammad cartoons controversy in March 2006—which many considered an echo of the death threats and "fatwā" that followed publication of "The Satanic Verses" in 1989—Rushdie signed the manifesto "Together Facing the New Totalitarianism", a statement warning of the dangers of religious extremism. The Manifesto was published in the left-leaning French weekly "Charlie Hebdo" in
Knighthood of Salman Rushdie of nearby Pakistan (see below). Hosseini noted that not only had he immediately condemned the knighthood as Islamophobia, but in a seeming reversal of his nation's previous stand said "The stance of the Islamic Republic of Iran with regard to this issue has not changed from what was put forward by Imam Khomeini." In a similar statement Parliamentarian for Tehran, Mehdi Kuchakzadeh, said "Rushdie died the moment the late Imam (Ayatollah Khomeini) issued the "fatwa"." Also on the 25th, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission appeared with his Norwegian counterpart (Olaf Akselsson) to respond