The move was part of a landmark deal with the UK. Iran issued a public guarantee not to press for Rushdie’s assassination in exchange for improving diplomatic relations between London and Tehran.
But there was a catch. The murderous 1989 decree over Rushdie’s satirical novel The Satanic Verses could not be officially revoked because the source of the fatwa – Iran’s first Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini – was dead. At least, that’s what Rushdie was told, according to his memoir.
It was a cleverly crafted ambiguity that has defined Iran’s policy on this issue – and many other issues – in recent years. In 2006, Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Iran-backed Hezbollah, publicly complained that the fatwa against the author had not been carried out, claiming that it encouraged others to “insult” the Prophet Muhammad. In 2019, Iran’s current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reminded his supporters that the sentence against Rushdie was “solid and irrevocable” in a tweet that led to his account being shut down. Khamenei still tweets from other accounts.
Four months before Rushdie was brutally stabbed to death at an event in New York on Friday, an Iranian news outlet, Iran Online, published an article praising the fatwa.
Meanwhile, Iran appeared to insist on continuing to swing the executioner’s sword in front of Rushdie.
Regardless of their motives, Iran’s cynical exploitation of the sensibilities of some Muslims is evident. The Satanic verses draw on a deeply controversial story in the early Islamic tradition which claims that Satan temporarily interfered with the divine revelations given to the Prophet Muhammad. Iran did not immediately ban the book; The country’s rulers only acted several months later, after the book sparked protests in Pakistan.
The fatwa that followed proved politically useful. It elevated Khomeini in the eyes of Islamic fundamentalists throughout the Muslim world, including Sunnis. But then, as now, it had its prominent Muslim and regional critics.
The New Yorker’s Robin Wright reports that Khomeini’s closest protégé at the time, Ayatollah Ali Montazeri, criticized the decree. Montazeri, who also spoke out against mass executions of Iranian dissidents, fell out of favor with the regime and was placed under house arrest in 1997. A letter published in The New York Review of Books in 1989, signed by Arab and Muslim scholars, also condemned the anti-Rushdie campaign.
“This campaign is being conducted in the name of Islam, although none of it does Islam credit,” signed the letter five prominent intellectuals, including the late Indian-born poet Aga Shahid Ali and the late Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said.
“Certainly Muslims and others have the right to protest The Satanic Verses if they feel the novel offends their religious and cultural sensibilities,” the letter’s authors added. “But transferring protest and debate to the realm of bigoted violence actually goes against Islamic traditions of learning and tolerance.”
In Rushdie’s memoir Joseph Anton, the Mumbai-born author is openly questioned as to whether he was “sold out” by the 1998 London-Tehran deal just days after declaring threats on his life “over”. Joseph Anton was his pseudonym during his time underground and he refers to himself in the third person in the book.
Though he acknowledges the death sentence would continue to loom over his head, he chose to emerge from his life in hiding and settle in New York, where decades later he would be brutally assaulted in front of horrified onlookers.
The suspect in last week’s attack has been named by authorities as Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old from New Jersey.
Matar pleaded not guilty to attempted second-degree murder and other charges on Saturday.
True to form, Iran denied involvement in the attack, saying Rushdie and his “supporters” were themselves to blame. Hezbollah also said it had no information about the attacker and the conspiracy in comments to CNN.
“Nothing was ever perfect, but there was a level of imperfection that was hard to bear,” Rushdie wrote in his memoir of the 1998 decision. “Nevertheless, he remained resolute,” Rushdie added, referring to himself. “He had to take his life back into his own hands. He couldn’t wait any longer for the ‘imperfection factor’ to drop to a more acceptable level.”
The abstract
Iran to deliver final response to EU nuclear deal proposal by midnight in Tehran – FM
Iran will give its final response to a European Union proposal to revive the nuclear deal by midnight Monday, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, according to state media.
- Background: Iran exchanges messages with the United States through mediation on three remaining issues, one of which is “guarantees,” Amir-Abdollahian said. “The American side has shown flexibility on two points that have been taken into account and must now show flexibility on guarantees,” he said. The US State Department did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment. During the briefing, Amir-Abdollahian made no mention of Iran’s earlier request that an IAEA probe into trace amounts of uranium at three undeclared sites be halted.
- Why It Matters: The revival of the nuclear deal the US withdrew from in 2018 appeared close to completion earlier this year. But the talks stalled in March due to a few sticking points. They restarted in Vienna earlier this month after the EU came up with a new proposal. With an increasingly tight oil market following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a revived nuclear deal would help bring energy prices down after sanctions on Iran’s oil market were lifted and help more barrels flow to Europe.
At least 18 children killed in Egypt church fire
At least 41 people, including 18 children, were killed after a fire broke out at the church of Abu Sefein in Giza’s densely populated Imbaba district on Sunday, according to a statement by the spokesman for the Egyptian Coptic Church, citing health officials.
- Background: The fire that pierced the small Coptic church in Giza, in the greater Cairo area, on Sunday also killed 14 people. At least 18 children were killed, according to hospital documents obtained by CNN. The children were between 3 and 16 years old. The fire was caused by a power outage in an air conditioner, the Interior Ministry said.
- Why It Matters: The incident highlights the dangers posed by parts of Egypt’s underdeveloped infrastructure, particularly in the country’s poorer and overcrowded neighborhoods. In 2020, at least seven people died in an electrical fire at a hospital treating Covid-19 patients.
Five Americans injured in Jerusalem shooting
At least eight people, including five Americans, were injured in an exchange of fire on a bus near the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City early Sunday morning.
- Background: According to the hospitals, two Americans are being treated at Hadassah Medical Center and three at Shaare Zedek Medical Center. At least two of the injured Americans were tourists, the hospitals said. The gunman fled the scene with members of the security forces, Shin Bet and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in pursuit. Police said an Israel Police Air Unit helicopter helped with the search. The suspect later turned himself in to the police. The gun he was carrying was confiscated, according to a police spokesman. According to Israeli media, the suspect is a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship. A security source confirmed to CNN that the suspect has Israeli citizenship and is from East Jerusalem.
- Why It Matters: Sunday’s shooting comes after hostilities in Gaza last weekend claimed the lives of dozens of Palestinians. A ceasefire was announced last Sunday between Israel and the militant group Islamic Jihad in Gaza. Although militant groups in Gaza such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad praised the attack, the suspect has no known links to any militant groups.
Around the region
A man in the United Arab Emirates has been fined up to 15,000 dirhams (about US$4,000) for telling a woman she was going to teach her “a lesson she would never forget,” the state-run reported Emarat Ayoum News Agency.
The woman filed a civil lawsuit and the Abu Dhabi Family Court ruled in her favour, while the man was fined for material and psychological harm, Emarat Alyoum reported, without giving further details on the cause of the disagreement or details of the two parties ‘ Relationship.
The news comes amid a rise in gender-based violence in the Middle East and growing calls from activists to strengthen legal protections for women in the region.
The gruesome killing of college student Naira Ashraf in Egypt sparked a barrage of condemnation and praise for the accused, with some male social media users arguing for similar violence against women. Just last week, Egyptian state media reported the killing of another college student by a young man after she reportedly ended their relationship. The man had reportedly threatened to kill her before she died and is now being held in custody pending an investigation, state media said. According to UN Women, one in three women worldwide has experienced physical or sexual violence at least once in their life, mostly by intimate partners.
In the Middle East, at least 37% of Arab women have experienced some form of violence in their lifetime, according to the same UN survey.
By Nadeen Ebrahim