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Iranian state media on Friday condemned writer Salman Rushdie, calling him an “apostate” and his writings “blasphemous” after the Indian-born creator used to be stabbed earlier than a speech in New York.
Rushdie used to be stabbed within the neck via an attacker earlier than giving a speech on the Chautauqua Institution on Friday after dwelling for greater than 30 years underneath a fatwa calling for his demise issued via the Iranian ayatollah in line with his e book “The Satanic Verses.”
The Islamic Republic News Agency, which described Rushdie as having been “attacked by knife,” known as him an “apostate author.”
It additionally described “The Satanic Verses” as a “blasphemous novel about Islam.”
STABBING OF SALMAN RUSHDIE COMES 33 YEARS AFTER FATWA ISSUED ON HIS LIFE BY IRAN
Author Salman Rushdie is tended to after he used to be attacked all over a lecture on the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, on Friday, Aug. 12, 2022.
(AP Photo/Joshua Goodman)
Meanwhile, FARS News, some other regime-owned outlet, additionally described him as an “apostate” and accused him of getting “insulted the Prophet of Islam (PBUH)” with the e book’s “anti-religious content.”
“The Satanic Verses” used to be revealed in 1988 and sparked violent protests around the globe from Muslims at what they considered as blasphemous writing. The fatwa used to be issued in a while after in 1989. Rushdie has been an outspoken supporter and a logo of freedom of expression in opposition to spiritual extremism — however has required around-the-clock safety.
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“It is free speech that makes it possible for us to be free people. Unfortunately, there are those who wish us not to be free, who would rather use the assassin’s veto to compel belief and silence dissent,” the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression advised Fox News Digital in a observation following the assault on Rushdie. “Mr. Rushdie has long understood free speech’s necessity. He is among its strongest advocates: ‘Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game.’”
The Iranian regime has stood via the fatwa, with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeting in 2019 that the fatwa “is based on divine verses, and just like divine verses, it is solid and irrevocable.”
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The assault comes days after the Justice Department printed fees in opposition to an Iran Revolutionary Guards Corp member for an alleged plot to kill former nationwide safety adviser John Bolton. The plot is assumed to be in retaliation for the 2020 killing of IRGC Quds Forces Leader Qassem Soleimani, who used to be taken out in an airstrike.
Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this file.
