Booker Prize winning author Salman Rushdie issued a strong statement to defend the art of satire after gunmen attacked the Paris office of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and killed 12 people. 

Here is Rushdie's complete statement:

"Religion, a medieval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today.

"I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity. Respect for religion' has become a code phrase meaning 'fear of religion.'

"Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect."

Remember, Rushdie had been issued a fatwa by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini calling for his death over his book Satanic Verses, which Khomeini said blasphemous. Rushdie went underground for several years.