In 1988, the Indian-born, British-based author Salman Rushdie published the award-winning novel The Satanic Verses, which satirized Muhammed and Islam.  The Western literary world issued Rushdie awards and praise, but Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran, issued Rushdie a fatwa.

The ayotallah's 1989 fatwa against Rushdie urged "Muslims of the world rapidly to execute the author and the publishers of the book" so that "no one will any longer dare to offend the sacred values of Islam."  The order traveled far and wide.

In 1991, Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of The Satanic Verses, was stabbed to death.  In October 1993, William Nygaard, the Norwegian publisher of the novel, was shot three times outside his home in Oslo.

Rushdie managed to evade bodily harm for thirty-three years, in large part due to necessary but onerous security protection, until August 12, 2022, when he was stabbed ten times on stage in Chautauqua, New York.  He was preparing to deliver a lecture on artistic freedom.

Notably, neither Rushdie's attacker nor Khomeini had even read The Satanic Verses.  Still, in their minds, Rushdie was simply an irredeemably bad person, who had to be destroyed for the greater good.

They were radical ideologues, determined to go to extreme lengths to punish an author who had committed no actual crime in order to deter anyone else from challenging, questioning, criticizing, or even satirizing their sacred values and beliefs, which condoned the murders of anyone who offended them.

Americans should be grateful that we don't live in such a country — a country run by radical, intolerant ideologues, who issue fatwas against those they simply dislike or who commit the "crime" of offending their sacred beliefs. 

Except Americans do live in such a country — only in America it is Democrats, rather than ayatollahs, who issue the fatwas. 

In March 2020, Democrat senator Chuck Schumer issued his own fatwa against Supreme Court justices Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito, declaring that they would "pay the price" for voting to overturn Roe v. Wade.  Schumer's fatwa, like Khomeini's, traveled far and wide. 

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Two years later, a California resident was arrested near Justice Kavanaugh's home in Maryland, where he had traveled with the intention of killing Kavanaugh and his family.

So too have the Democrats issued a fatwa against Trump.  Trump is to the left what Rushdie was to Khomeini.  The left's fatwa against Trump urges leftists of the world to destroy Trump and his supporters so that no one will any longer dare to offend the sacred values of the left.

While Trump and the justices have thus far evaded bodily harm, others have not.

Congressman Steve Scalise (R-La.) was shot and hospitalized in 2017 while practicing for the annual congressional baseball game in Alexandria, Virginia.  His attacker had written, "It's time to destroy Trump & co."

That same year, comedian Kathy Griffin showcased her comedic talent when she posted a photo of herself holding up President Trump's bloody, severed head.

Since then, condoned violence from the left against Trump hasn't subsided, but has instead intensified.

In response to the unprecedented FBI raid on Trump's Mar-a-Lago home — carried out  by the same FBI unit involved in the Trump-Russia collusion hoax — former CIA director Michael Hayden implied that Trump should be executed for allegedly being in possession of classified documents. 

In October of 2020, Democrat atheist, author, and podcaster Sam Harris said that "Osama bin Laden is far less reprehensible personally to [him] than Trump."  Osama Bin Laden was killed in 2011 and his death celebrated. 

In 2016, Hillary Clinton stood before a Jewish lobbying group and likened Trump to Hitler.

Democrats have repeatedly compared Trump to mass murderers and terrorists whose deaths or assassinations warrant celebration.  What exactly were Trump's crimes, which could merit such comparisons?

Democrats accused Trump of colluding with the Kremlin to steal the 2016 election.  The $32-million, taxpayer-funded Mueller investigation found no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.  But concrete evidence was uncovered proving that the Democrats invented the hoax.

When that coup attempt failed, the Democrats impeached Trump over two subsequent hoaxes: quid pro quo and inciting an insurrection.  Like Trump-Russia collusion, those efforts also failed.

Trump, like Rushdie, had committed no actual crimes.  Instead, the left manufactured them. 

Like Rushdie's attacker and the ayatollah, whose hatred was rooted in a novel they'd never read, the left's hatred of Trump is based on a fictional narrative of their own invention. 

Those on the left view themselves as ayatollahs in America, condemning, demonizing, and punishing anyone who dares offend the sacred values of the left.

Trump-supporters are "deplorables," parents who voice opposition to racist Critical Race Theory are "domestic terrorists," and voters who ousted Liz Cheney are "Soviet."  We are all simply irredeemably bad and must be destroyed.

While the attack against Rushdie was universally condemned, it's time the leftists in this country looks in the mirror and condemned themselves.

The left in America is as intolerant as Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.  Leftists' fatwas against Trump, his supporters, and anyone else they deem a threat to their agenda are as dangerous and reprehensible as the fatwa against Salman Rushdie.