DUBAI: No one has right to level accusations against Iran over Friday’s attack on Salman Rushdie, for which he and his supporters are solely to blame, foreign ministry in Tehran said. In Iran’s first official reaction to Friday’s attack, ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said freedom of speech did not justify Rushdie’s insults against religion.

His 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses” is viewed by some Muslims as containing blasphemous passages. “During attack on Salman Rushdie, we do not consider anyone other than himself and his supporters worthy of reproach, reproach and condemnation,” Kanaani told a news briefing. “The Satanic Verses” was published in 1988. Following year, Iran’s then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling on Muslims to kill novelist and anyone involved in book’s publication. Iranian government said in 1998 it would no longer back fatwa. But in 2019, Twitter suspended Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s account over a tweet that said fatwa against Rushdie was “solid and irrevocable”.–Agencies

Published in The Daily National Courier, August, 16 2022

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