In 1989, Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering Muslims around the world to hunt down and kill author Salman Rushdie over his book, “The Satanic Verses.” Which Iran’s current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei reminded everyone of yesterday in this tweet:
Imam Khomeini’s verdict regarding Salman Rushdie is based on divine verses and just like divine verses, it is solid and irrevocable. 1990-06-05
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) February 14, 2019
Yes, this should be a bigger deal:
This needs to be a bigger deal. The Supreme Leader of Iran is using @Twitter to remind the world that there is a multi-million dollar bounty on @SalmanRushdie's head. Rushdie wrote a book Khomeini found to be offensive and now Khomeini's successor is reminding people of the $$$ https://t.co/D7AS6oINEA
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) February 15, 2019
Good thing the Ayatollah didn’t get made at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or then he’d be in real trouble:
To be clear: Re-upping a kill order on another human being does not upset Twitter as much as someone asking a congresswoman about her boyfriend. https://t.co/XpUN4fa9UZ
— Ben (@BenHowe) February 15, 2019
Over to you, Jack:
We talk a lot about hypothetical Twitter bans for world leaders, but Khamenei's account is promoting a bounty on Salman Rushdie's head. Does that violate Twitter's TOS? cc:@jack https://t.co/40kwSw7xFP
— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) February 15, 2019
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