In February 1989 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran announced that Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, and "all involved in its publication who were aware of its content, are sentenced to death." Anyone who died in the cause of killing Rushdie, he said, would be "regarded as a martyr and go directly to heaven." The death sentence-or fatwa-quickly drew blood. Bookshops in London, Oslo, and Sydney were firebombed. Five people were killed and a hundred wounded when demonstrators attacked the U. S. embassy in Islamabad. In Bombay, twelve rioters were shot dead. The Italian translator...