From: Ullrich_Fischer@mindlink.bc.ca (Ullrich Fischer)
Subject: Salman Rushdie lives ... sort of
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 05:42:47 GMT

I just got the following e-mail response to me message regarding Salman
Rushdie's predicament which I had posted to usenet.misc.headlines last week.





Taken from MIND LINK! on Thu Dec 17 20:39:33 1992

Thu Dec 17 16:03:05 1992
Letter  : 656770    From: Phil Linttell
Address : phill@sidus.sidus.ocunix.on.ca
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To:     Ullrich_Fischer@mindlink.bc.ca
Date:   Thu, 17 Dec 1992 17:26:38 -0500
From:   Phil Linttell <phill@sidus.sidus.ocunix.on.ca>
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To: Ullrich_Fischer@mindlink.bc.ca (Ullrich Fischer)
Subject: Re: Salman Rushdie lives! (sort of)
Newsgroups: misc.headlines
Organization: Sidus Systems, Inc., Ottawa, Ontario (Canada)
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL7]

In article <18438@mindlink.bc.ca> you wrote:
: Salman Rushdie was in Canada recently and got a bit of media attention.
:
: It once again raises the question as to why any democratic country in the
: world still has anything to do with Iran or allows Iranian embassies to
: remain open while this outrage continues.

Hello, Ullrich.

I'm surprised that you don't see the parallel between the government of
Iran's
(really, Imam Khomeini) sentence of death for Rushdie and your suggestions of
an Iranian (or is it Islamic?) boycott.

Khomeini was trying to protect Islam by repressing the source of potentially
dangerious and certainly unpalatable - to a muslim - ideas.  In other words,
if you don't find something appetising, elminate it, suppress it, or hide it.
So to you, it would appear, that the appropriate action to protect freedom of
speach is place economic and political sanctions on the Iranian government
and people.  Too bad we can't just nuke 'em, eh?  Perhaps if we close all of
their embassies we can just forget about them.

Boycotting Iran will do nothing to foster an understanding between cultures.
Perhaps if you took some time to learn why a muslim might react extremely
to the notions and insults in The Satanic Verses, you might be able to do
some
good the next time you talk with an Iranian.

I am not a Muslim, nor am I Christian.  I do not subscribe to any organised
religion but prefer to make my own determinations of right and wrong.  I
had the good fortune to visit Iran recently and experience the culture, and
was greatly enriched thereby.  I hope that the Iranians with whom I had
contact were in some small way enriched themselves.  Perhaps one or two
of those people achieved some understanding of why we value free speach so
highly.  If not, perhaps the next person to visit Iran will leave behind a
greater understanding.

It would be a terrible loss if, as a result of closing the Iranian embassies,
we could no longer visit Iran.

Non-religion, too, is a religion.

Too bad we can't take out contracts on (non-)religious radicals with
net.access.  Actually, now that I think about it, maybe we can...

TC, Phil
--
Phil Linttell,              5310 Canotek Road, Unit 16
SCO Product Manager         Ottawa, Ontario, K1J 9N5  CANADA
Sidus Systems, Inc.         t. 613-749-1777  f. 613-749-3850
phill@sidus.ocunix.on.ca    "This is as real as your so-called life gets." -
Q.


====================================


--
Ullrich_Fischer@mindlink.bc.ca     If God had meant us to be religious
fundamentalists, He wouldn`t have given us brains.  "What makes a person so
poisonous righteous, that he thinks less of anyone who just disagrees?" -
Moxy Fruvous
Newsgroups: misc.headlines