Trial of Rushdie attacker should make Trump rethink yanking protection from Pompeo
New York PostJAN 25
Trial Begins for Salman Rushdie Attacker
Above: Salman Rushdie, author, during the Cliveden Literary Festival 2024 at Cliveden House on Sept. 21, 2024, in Windsor, England. Image copyright: David Levenson/Contributor/Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
The attack on Salman Rushdie mirrors the tactics of extremist groups and regimes against critics of their ideologies. Matar's assault, decades after Khomeini's fatwa, shows these entities' readiness to enforce silence through violence at any time and any place. While Rushdie was fortunately able to survive this attack, Western governments take this as a warning that more security is needed for high-profile critics of Islamic extremism.
Establishment-critical narrative
The attack on Rushdie is a microcosm of today's cyclical violence in the Middle East. Just as anti-Iran pundits used terror attacks to justify colonizing Palestine, and anti-Taliban pundits did so to justify invading Afghanistan, the Muslims who live in those countries use Western attacks to justify counter-attacks. People like Rushdie will never achieve peace because they never acknowledge the history of Western intervention when analyzing foreign affairs.