Iran says Salman Rushdie and supporters to blame for attack

Iran’s foreign ministry has said that Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed repeatedly at a public appearance in New York state, and his supporters are to blame for the attack.Freedom of speech did not justify Rushdie’s insults upon religion in his writing, spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said in a press briefing on Monday. Iran has no other information about Rushdie’s alleged assailant except what has appeared in media, he added. Kanani added that Rushdie “exposed himself to public indignation” through insulting holy Islamic values and “crossing the red lines of 1.5 billion Muslims”.

No one has a right to blame the Islamic Republic of Iran for the attack, he said, vehemently denying reports that Tehran has had any links with the attacker, 24-year-old Hadi Matar, The spokesman also accused the West, especially the United States, of exercising “double standards” when supporting freedom of expression, and said Rushdie’s undermining of Islamic values cannot be supported from religious, moral, human, or legal standpoints. Kanani’s comments came shortly after US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken condemned Iran for inciting violence against Rushdie, calling it “despicable” that Iranian state institutions and state-affiliated media supported the attack.

Rushdie is recovering after being stabbed repeatedly at a public appearance in New York state. The Indian-born writer has lived with a bounty on his head since the publication of his 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses," which is viewed by some Muslims as containing blasphemous passages. In 1989 Iran's then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling on Muslims to kill the novelist and anyone involved in the book's publication. The Iranian government said in 1998 it would no longer back the fatwa, and Rushdie has lived relatively openly in recent years.