Steve,
If I heard correctly, the Fatwa was rescinded –but you can check my account when you view the program.

Anyway, it seems to make little difference whether it's current or lapsed .A number of speakers made it clear that in their world view Rushdie had committed a crime which warranted the death sentence –with or without a fatwa.

And besides, fatwa’s seem to be a-dime-a-dozen, any backyard cleric can issue one.

For the West this is a self imposed affliction: rather like drinking too much alcohol and afterwards fretting about liver cirrhosis –I like this comment from the ABC link:

“ in a plural society, you need greater censorship than you would in a less plural and a more homogenous society, because in a plural society you have lots of people with different kinds of views and beliefs, deeply held. And one must be careful what one says, so as not to offend these deeply held beliefs and views.”

Kind of makes you yearn for the “bad” old days!

“Did 1989 mark the beginning of the end of the enlightenment?”

The only time the Enlightenment will end is when the universal forces of civil control and order are re-invested back into the hands of the despots, be the despot either a Monarch, a dictator or a Pope.

Regarding Germ Greer, who cares what that malignant old sow believes. She has been a continuous and ugly source of bilious irrelevance since she first put pen to paper.

To 20 years since stevenlmeyer “left the left”

Sorry, Steven, I do not see that event as up there with Galileo : - )

To your definition, I visited SA in 1980 and I would have been “A leftie” by the standards of the SA Nationalist party too, although I did work with some ex-members of BOSS who were quite pleasant fellows when on their own.
And I too would agree with you, in support of David Irving’s right to freedom of expression, which is equal to mine. Without his right to speak, my own right is likewise forfeit.

Freedom of speech permits us to assess the Sage and the Fool by the wisdom of their words.
Censorship reduces our assessment to presume they are Equals.

thanks for making me do some more research steven
seems 1989 was the paek [death toll of the intafarda]
http://www.phrmg.org/monitor2001/oct2001-collaborators.htm

http://www.btselem.org/english/statistics/first_Intifada_Tables.asp

from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Intifada

quote..>>In 1989,local committees in Beit Sahour initiated a nonviolence movement to withhold taxes,[26]
http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/1297/9712081.html
taking up the slogan "No Taxation Without Representation,"[27] the legality of which under international law is disputed.
http://www.beitsahourmunicipality.com/english/historic.htm

The Israeli defense minister Yitzhak Rabin response was: "We will teach them there is a price for refusing the laws of Israel."[28]

When time in prison did not stop the activists, Israel crushed the boycott by imposing heavy fines while seizing and disposing the equipment, furnishings, and goods from local stores, factories, and homes..
http://books.google.ca/books?id=olWnkxm4SPoC&pg=PA204&dq=%22suicide+bombing%22+first+palestinian+1993&sig=VIy73kToRvMzPDwCmuDiKagBt80

no doudt there was a reason ...for creating the satanic verses as a destraction...what better than a simple mossad operation via the zionist controled media [eh?]
http://books.google.ca/books?id=olWnkxm4SPoC&pg=PA204&dq=%22suicide+bombing%22+first+palestinian+1993&sig=VIy73kToRvMzPDwCmuDiKagBt80

http://www.jmcc.org/research/reports/intifada.htm
http://libcom.org/library/rebellion-palestine-le-brise-glace

<< Did 1989 mark the beginning of the end of the enlightenment? >>

Okay, having now reacquainted myself with the salient issues raised by the 'Satanic Verses' controversy, I think the answer to Steven's question is a firm "no".

However, it did mark the point where Islamic fundamentalist nutjobs demonstrated both their disdain for Western values and their ability to create terror in Western societies in the name of their Prophet and/or God.

Contra Steven's claims, the hapless Rushdie's cause was widely supported by academics, politicians and authors throughout the West, and no Western country (except Argentina, Pericles?) to my knowledge has banned the publication and sale of 'The Satanic Verses'. Yes, a few prominent idiots in the West supported the fatwa (which is still current), but to claim that the 'Left' did generally is to exaggerate wildly.

The rise of aggressive Islamic fundamentalism probably acted as something of a catalyst for an apparent increase in Christian fundamentalist sentiment in Western countries, such that the short period where religion's salience in society was thought to be an anachronistic irrelevance was attenuated.

Unfortunately, religious fundamentalists of all kinds seem to be becoming more aggressive and political, so Steven's question is a reasonable one. However, I think that it's somewhat premature to declare the Enlightenment dead - although the enlightened secular majority in the West needs to be alert to the religious cancers lurking within our societies, while continuing to foster and encourage rationalism and secular education in the developing world.

CJ MORGAN wrote:

"The rise of aggressive Islamic fundamentalism probably acted as something of a catalyst for an apparent increase in Christian fundamentalist sentiment in Western countries,…."

I think that's probably right. There is some evidence from Britain that when Muslims move into a neighbourhood many previously a-religious people tend to start self-identifying as Christian. (See eg John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, God is Back, The Penguin Press, 2009. I do not have page numbers handy)

From the Christian perspective the growth of Islam in the US and Europe may turn out to be the best thing that's happened since Constantine. There is nothing like the spur of competition to galvanise a moribund institution into action.

The more I survey the scene the more convinced I become that back in the 1960s atheists were too quick to claim victory. I fear that religion, like the poor, will be with us always. What is more I think its role in the public square will increase rather than diminish.

Apologies, CJ, and one-and-all

>>no Western country (except Argentina, Pericles?) to my knowledge has banned the publication and sale of 'The Satanic Verses'.<<

My careless reading, I'm afraid, of a banned-book list that I tracked down following a lead that Argentine had banned Lolita. There I found Irving's "Search for Truth" and Rushdie's "Satanic Verses" juxtaposed, and leapt to the wrong conclusion, that Argentina had banned those also.

In fact, they had banned neither.

<red face>