The 1989 firebombing of the Riverdale Press was an attack in which two firebombs were thrown at the offices of a weekly newspaper, the Riverdale Press

Riverdale Press

Founded in 1950 by David A. Stein, The Riverdale Press is a weekly newspaper that covers the Northwest Bronx neighborhoods of Riverdale, Kingsbridge, Kingsbridge Heights and Van Cortlandt Village. It is one of a handful of weeklies to win a Pulitzer Prize....

, in the Riverdale

Riverdale, Bronx

Riverdale is an affluent residential neighborhood in the northwest portion of the Bronx in New York City. Riverdale contains the northernmost point in New York City.-History:...

 community of the Bronx

The Bronx

The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...

, New York City on Feb. 28, 1989. The building was heavily damaged.

The bombing took place shortly after the newspaper published an editorial defending Salman Rushdie during the controversy over The Satanic Verses

The Satanic Verses controversy

The Satanic Verses controversy was the heated and sometimes violent Muslim reaction to the publication of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses. Many Muslims accused Rushdie of blasphemy or unbelief and in 1989 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie...

.