Photo: ATTA KENARE / AFP / Getty Images
While much of the world reacted with horror to the stabbing of novelist Salman Rushdie, hardline Iranian newspapers and ordinary citizens of that country celebrated the attack against the author who has lived under death threats since 1989.
“Satan is on the way to hell”, published the conservative newspaper Khorasan on a photo of Rushdie on a stretcher.
“A thousand bravos… to the person brave and obedient who attacked the apostate and evil Salman Rushdie in New York,” wrote the hardline newspaper Kayhan, whose editor-in-chief is appointed by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
“The hand of the man who tore the neck of the enemy of God must be kissed”.
“I don’t know Salman Rushdie, but I am glad to know that he was attacked because ins It insulted Islam,” said Reza Amiri, a 27 year-old delivery man in Tehran. “This is the fate of anyone who insults the sanctities.”
Rushdie, of 75 years old, is on a ventilator and unable to speak at a hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he was airlifted after being stabbed while on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, about 39 miles south of Buffalo.
Hadi Matar, of 24 years old, of Fairview, New Jersey, was arrested at the scene of the bombing.
The stabbing suspect was charged with assault and attempted murder and is being held without bond, according to a news release from the Chautauqua County District Attorney.
Matar, aged 27 years old, allegedly went on stage at the Institution Chautauqua on Friday morning to where Rushdie, aged 75 was beginning a conference on free speech.
“We have been in contact with our counterparts in the state of New Jersey, where the attacker is from, to share information and help us better understand the planning and preparation that preceded the attack so that we and the various agencies involved can determine. what additional charges, if any, should be brought forward,” the prosecutor’s office said.
The British-Indian writer was the subject of a fatwa , or religious edict, which called for his death in 1989 after the publication of the novel “Los versos satanicos”.
The book is inspired by the life of the prophet Mohammed and the title taken from a group of verses from the Koran that refer to three pagan goddesses outraged Muslims, who accused him of blasphemy and mocking their faith.
Rushdie lived in hiding for years after the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the edict calling for his death.
After Khomeini’s death, an Iranian religious foundation posted a bounty on Rushdie’s head that increased to $3.3 million.
In 2019, Twitter suspended current leader Khamenei’s account for a tweet t which said that Khomeini’s fatwa against Rushdie was “sound and irrevocable”.
The Asr Iran news site published on Saturday a frequently uttered quote by Khamenei saying that the “arrow” fired by Khomeini “will one day hit the white”.
There was still no official reaction in Iran to the attack on Rushdie.
Born in the United States, Matar’s family hails from the southern Lebanese village of Yaroun, which is just miles from the border with Israel, which has fired on what it says are positions of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in the area.
Police have not stated a motive for the attack, but sources told the New York Post that Matar was sympathetic to the Iranian government.
Early on Saturday, Iranian state media reported that another man was killed while trying to He was going to carry out the fatwa.
Lebanese citizen Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh was killed when a book bomb exploded prematurely in a London hotel on August 3 of 1989, a little over 33 years.
While many in Iran applauded the attack, some worried it would further damage Iran, where the economy continues to struggle under harsh sanctions and efforts to revive the tattered nuclear deal had yielded little progress.
“I feel that those who did it are trying to isolate Iran,” said Mahshid Barati, a geography teacher from 33 years. “This will negatively affect relations with many, including Russia and China.”