Salman Rushdie says free Palestinian state would be 'Taliban-like'

Salman Rushdie has said that a free Palestinian state would be “Taliban-like” and a “client” of Iran.

Speaking to German broadcaster RBB, the author said that “any human right now” had to be “distressed by what is happening in Gaza because of the quantity of human death”.

But, he continued: “I would just like some of the protesters to mention Hamas because that’s where this started. And Hamas is a terrorist organisation. It’s very strange for young, progressive student politics to kind of support a fascist, terrorist group.” 

“They’re talking about free Palestine. I am somebody who has argued for a Palestinian state for most of my life, since the 1980s probably,” Rushdie, who had a fatwa calling for his death placed on him by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 after perceived blasphemy contained in his book The Satanic Verses, said. 

Read more: Salman Rushdie says free Palestinian state would be 'Taliban-like'