Don, the so-called death threat was to my mind very real. Most muslims, of course, would not be able to carry it out, but it just takes one - just one - and one is all that it needs. And what is all the "scads of lovely lolly" refer to? Is it the money he made from The Satanic Verses? Well, he is the author. Is it not rightly his? Do you think he wrote the book just to make money and that the death threat was some sort of publicity stunt? I have to say no on both counts. Rushdie is a serious artist and the death sentence on him was a real threat. What if the Monty Python team had been threatend by Christian fundelmentalists after making The Life of Brian? Would you have felt the same way? There was nothing hyped about Rushdie's death threat. Look how it was cheered by mobs of Muslims all over the world. It was a scary and sobering moment. The silence, and with silence comes tacit approval, from liberals and the Left staggered me. I thought I was a fellow traveller and discovered I wasn't.