Kidneys for Death, Not Life

It has been a decade since Iran’s late spiritual leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, pronounced a death sentence on the novelist Salman Rushdie. Khomeini’s fatwa, a religious edict, accused Rushdie of blaspheming Islam in his book “The Satanic Verses.” An Iranian foundation soon offered a reward of more than $1 million to anyone who killed Rushdie, born in India of Muslim parents. The author, living in Britain, prudently went into hiding under police protection. The threat against him became, and remains, a cause celebre for those who believe in the imperative to defend free expression, however offensive some may see it in practice.

The always bizarre Rushdie affair has now taken another weird, even grotesque turn. An Iranian newspaper reports that Islamic militias in the city of Mashad have organized a campaign that has induced more than 500 Iranians to promise to sell one of their kidneys to increase the bounty on Rushdie. The sale of human organs is legal in Iran and is overseen by the government. It’s not known yet whether any kidneys have been sold.

Rushdie has managed for a decade to escape the vengeance ordered against him, though a number of people associated with the worldwide publication of “The Satanic Verses”--publishers, translators, booksellers--have been less fortunate. Rushdie has expressed regrets for any offense his novel might have given and at one point even announced that he had reembraced Islam. Last year, Iran said it would not officially enforce the fatwa.

In recent years Rushdie has led a less reclusive existence. The latest chilling reminder from Iran that his alleged crime has not been forgotten or forgiven may change that.