The Satanic Verses controversy in 2000. Meanwhile, in America, the director of the Near East Studies Center at UCLA, George Sabbagh, told an interviewer that Khomeini was "completely within his rights" to call for Rushdie's death. In May 1989 in Beirut, Lebanon, British citizen Jackie Mann was abducted "in response to Iran's fatwa against Salman Rushdie for the publication of book the Satanic Verses and more specifically, for his refuge and protection in the United Kingdom". He joined several Westerners held hostage there. Two months earlier a photograph of three teachers held hostage was released by Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine with
Knighthood of Salman Rushdie attacks on all Muslim lands. The British capital has witnessed blessed operations that shook it to its foundations. This was because the British had attacked the lands of Muslims and Al Qaeda is still threatening to strike against Britain to throw it out of the lands of Islam. But now, there's yet another reason for Al Qaeda to carry out such threats; the honouring of the apostate Salman Rushdie by the Crusaders ... Rushdie who insulted Islam ... and this reason has led Muslims to become even more sympathetic with the Mujahideen. The question now is: Has London longed for