Fatwa Underscoring

I'm going to have to go out on a limb and tell the mullahs to let this one go.

Iran's hard-line Revolutionary Guards have declared the death sentence on British author Salman Rushdie is still valid - 16 years after it was issued.

The military organisation, loyal to Iran's supreme leader - said the order was "irrevocable" on the eve of the anniversary of the 1989 fatwa.

The order was issued after publication of Mr Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses", condemned as blasphemous.

Iran's reformist government has in the past distanced itself from the fatwa.

The Revolutionary Guards, who answer directly to Iran's current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said: "This statement, while stressing the irrevocability of the death verdict against Salman Rushdie, says history shows that the Muslims have in no era accepted their sanctities being defiled."

Earth to mullahs: it's not blasphemy, it's history. Deal with it.