Pro-Iran Telegram Outlet Celebrates Attacker Of Author Salman Rushdie As 'Executor Of Khomeini's Fatwa'

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August 12, 2022

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On August 12, 2022, "Sabereen News For Studies And Security Analysis," a Telegram channel affiliated with Iran-backed militias in Iraq, celebrated the assailant who stabbed British author Salman Rushdie during an event at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York.[1]

Rushdie's work earned him death threats in the 1980s, when the Iranian government banned his novel "The Satanic Verses," considering it blasphemous for containing mocking references to the Prophet Muhammad . On February 14, 1989, Iran's then Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa (Islamic verdict), calling on Muslims to kill Rushdie.

Following the stabbing, the Telegram channel shared a photo showing the handcuffed assailant being arrested by police. The channel described the stabber as "the executor of Sayyd[2] Khomeini's fatwa."

Some years ago in the UK, the channel claimed, a Lebanese man attempted to kill Rushdie, using an IED which instead killed only him. The channel shared a photo of the man, praying for Allah to grant him mercy.

 

[1] Telegram, August 12, 2022.

[2] A Muslim man descending from the Prophet Muhammad.


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