Novelist Salman Rushdie has spoken out against the threat of “religious totalitarianism” in the wake of the murderous attack in Paris.

With the rise of Islamic militancy in the shape of the Islamic State, it is important to remember that the causes of this extremism are both internal and external, writes TP O’Mahony

THE English comedian Patrick Monahan’s father is Irish and his mother is Iranian.

A group of former Fine Gael TDs claims the government can't try to silence them while also abolishing the Seanad.

The Book of Fate

'The Satanic Verses' author Salman Rushdie said it would be “difficult” to publish the book now because of the “climate of fear” that exists.

COMEDIAN Shappi Khorsandi didn’t have it easy growing up.

Within five months of each other, two of the men who helped make 60 Minutes the most distinctive news show on US television have died.

Omid Djalili has survived being shot at while a student, and being heckled by his wife while learning his trade as a comic, writes Richard Fitzpatrick

Hard-line Iranian students stormed the British Embassy in Tehran today, tearing down the Union flag and throwing documents from windows in scenes reminiscent of the anger against Western powers after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

WATCHING pictures on television of a dictator getting his ass whipped — especially when he is one who has been raping his country’s finances for 30 years — is always a visceral pleasure.

HOW do you solve a problem like Iran? As Richard Haas, president of America’s Council on Foreign Relations, and once the US envoy to Northern Ireland states, “what happens in the Middle East does not stay in the Middle East”.

Iran’s president marked the anniversary of the nation’s foundation as an Islamic republic today by declaring it is now a “nuclear state”.

GOVERNMENT supporters rallied across Iran yesterday to protest against an opposition “insult” to the Islamic Republic’s revered founder, with some calling for pro-reform leader Mir Hossein Mousavi to be executed.

Author Salman Rushdie has said he is still glad that he wrote his controversial novel 'The Satanic Verses' in an interview coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the publication of the book.

The controversial author Salman Rushdie was knighted by the Queen yesterday.

Iran is not building its nuclear capabilities to destroy Israel but to gain influence and prestige in a hostile region, writes Shlomo Ben-Ami

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman today criticised the recent appointment of Tony Blair as an international Mideast envoy, but expressed hope that Gordon Brown would relieve tensions between the two countries.

Pakistan today condemned Britain’s award of a knighthood to author Salman Rushdie as an affront to Muslim sentiments, and a Cabinet minister said the honour provided a justification for suicide attacks.

Pakistani politicians have today passed a government-backed resolution demanding Britain withdraw the knighthood awarded to author Salman Rushdie.

Iran today condemned Britain's decision to grant a knighthood to author Salman Rushdie, who was forced into hiding for a decade after the Islamic republic’s spiritual leader ordered his assassination.

British novelist Salman Rushdie is to join Emory University in Atlanta and donate his archive to the institution, it has been revealed.

REMEMBER Bill Clinton’s horrible gaffe? No, not the blatant lies he spun about his affair with Monica Lewinsky, but the joke he made about the Irish during an address to the United Nations.

CRITICS say the 80s-style radicalism of ultraconservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is hurting Iran at home and abroad - to the point that even his natural allies in parliament have rejected his three choices to run the all-important oil ministry.

AS the world prepared for the funeral of Pope John Paul II, some Europeans have questioned the deluge of ecstatic praise for the pontiff as well as the participation of scores of heads of state.

Author Salman Rushdie was today named the new president of the International Writers’ Organisation, also know as PEN.

ON his return to Iraq following Saddam Hussein’s fall from power, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim was hailed as Iraq’s version of Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian Shiite leader who led his country’s 1979 Islamic revolution.

On his return to Iraq following Saddam Hussein’s fall from power, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim was hailed as Iraq’s version of Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian Shiite leader who led his country’s 1979 Islamic revolution.

Relatives of former Argentinean president Carlos Menem today denied claims that Iran bribed him to cover up a 1994 anti-Jewish bombing that killed 84 people.

Slobodan Milosevic, architect of the Balkan conflicts that produced Europe’s worst atrocities since World War Two, is to appear before a United Nations judge on Tuesday to enter a plea on war crimes charges.

The UN war crimes court prosecutor says Slobodan Milosevic will be indicted for war crimes committed in 1990s wars in Bosnia and Croatia as well as against Kosovo Albanians.

Islamic groups in Iran have renewed calls for the killing of Salman Rushdie, saying it will be easier to kill him in the US where he now lives.