If asked why 1989 was an important year, most would likely point to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the cascading collapse of Soviet satellite governments in Europe, culminating in the disintegration of the U.S.S.R. itself two years later. Yet the attack on Salman Rushdie last week is a reminder that perhaps 1989’s most significant harbinger of today’s world was the fatwa issued against the author by Iran’s leader and senior cleric, Ayatollah Khomeini.