He believes that not Iran, but Rushdie and his supporters are to blame for the incident. “By crossing a red line that deeply insults one and a half billion Muslims, they expose themselves to people’s wrath,” the government spokesman said.
Rushdie was about to give a lecture in upstate New York when 24-year-old Hadi Matar from New Jersey stormed onto the stage with a knife and stabbed the writer. He also injured a moderator on the stage light. Rushdie is badly injured and may lose an eye. The perpetrator has been arrested. According to his single mother, he was not raised religiously in the US and may have taken on radical Islamic ideas after visiting his father in Lebanon, the Daily Mail reported. Matar’s lawyer declined to comment on his client and said the next hearing will be on August 19.
Rushdie published the book The Devil’s Verses in 1988, which was perceived by part of the Islamic world as an insult to Islam and the prophet Mohammed. Muslims held mass demonstrations against the author and his book. In 1989, Iran’s then spiritual leader, Shia Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1902-1989), outlawed Rushdie and called on Muslims to kill him. Rushdie went into hiding for ten years and received permanent protection from the British police. At least one attempt was made to kill him: a failed bombing.
Distanced from the fatwa
Following the death of the Ayatollah, the Iranian government distanced itself from the fatwa, the religious verdict that sentenced Rushdie and the publishers of his book to death. However, groups of extremists assume that the fatwa still applies, because such appeals from a high-ranking Shia cleric could not be changed or withdrawn after his death. But Rushdie was not so impressed with Khomeini’s fatwa before either. He called it “more of a rhetorical cry than an actual threat.” A reward of approximately $3 million had also been offered for the writer’s murder, but according to a previous statement by Rushdie, “there was no evidence yet that anyone would be interested in that reward.”