But there was a catch. The murderous 1989 decree on Rushdie’s satirical novel The Satanic Verses could not be formally revoked because the source of the fatwa — Iran’s first Supreme Leader, Rukhullah Khomeini — was dead. At least that’s what Rushdie was told, according to his memoirs.
It was a skillfully crafted ambiguity that defined Iran’s policy on the issue — and many other issues — in the intervening years. In 2006, Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of Iran-backed Hezbollah, publicly lamented that the fatwa against the author had not been enforced, claiming he had encouraged others to “insult” the prophet Muhammad. In 2019, Iran’s current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reminded his followers that the decision against Rushdi was “firm and irreversible,” in a tweet that led to his account being shut down. Khamenei still tweets from other accounts.
Four months before Rushdie was brutally stabbed at an event in New York on Friday, an Iranian news agency, Iran Online, published an article praising the fatwa.
Through it all, Iran seemed to insist on continuing to dangle the executioner’s sword in front of Rushdie.
Regardless of their motives, Iran’s cynical exploitation of the sensibilities of some Muslims is clear. The Satanic Verses is based on a deeply controversial story in early Islamic tradition that claims Satan momentarily interfered with divine revelations to the Prophet Muhammad. Iran did not immediately ban the book. The country’s leaders took action only several months later after the book inspired protests in Pakistan.
The ensuing fatwa proved useful politically. It elevated Khomeini in the eyes of Islamic fundamentalists throughout the Muslim world, including the Sunnis. However, then, as now, she had prominent Muslim and regional critics.
Robin Wright of the New Yorker reports that Khomeini’s closest protégé at the time, Ayatollah Ali Montazeri, criticized the decree. Montazeri, who also opposed Iran’s mass executions of dissidents, fell out of favor with the regime and was placed under house arrest in 1997. A 1989 letter published in The New York Review of Books signed by Arab and Muslim scholars , also denounced the campaign against Rushdie.
“This campaign is being waged in the name of Islam, although none of them believe in Islam,” the letter is signed by five prominent intellectuals, including the late Indian-origin poet Agha Shahid Ali and the late Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said.
“Certainly Muslims and others are entitled to protest against The Satanic Verses if they feel the novel offends their religion and cultural sensibilities,” the letter’s authors added. “But to take protest and debate into the realm of bigoted violence is actually antithetical to Islamic traditions of learning and tolerance.”
In Rushdie’s memoir, Joseph Anton, the Bombay-born writer is pictured openly questioning whether he had been “sold out” by the 1998 London-Tehran deal, just days after he declared the threats against his life “perfect”. Joseph Anton was his pseudonym during the underground period, and he refers to himself in the book in the third person.
Despite acknowledging that the death warrant would continue to hang over his head, he chose to exit his life in hiding and settle in New York where, decades later, he would be brutally attacked in front of horrified onlookers.
The suspect in last week’s attack has been named by authorities as Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old man from New Jersey.
Matar pleaded not guilty Saturday to attempted second-degree murder and other charges.
Indeed, Iran has denied involvement in the attack and said Rushdie and his “supporters” have only themselves to blame. Hezbollah also said it had no information about the attacker and the plot in comments to CNN.
“Nothing was ever perfect, but there was a level of imperfection that was hard to accept,” Rushdie wrote in his 1998 memoir of the decision. “Nevertheless, he remained determined,” 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.”
Digestion
Iran to give final answer to EU nuclear deal proposal by midnight in Tehran – MFA Iran will give its final response to a European Union proposal to revive the nuclear deal by midnight on Monday, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, according to state media.
Background: Iran is exchanging messages with the United States through mediation on three remaining issues, one of which is “guarantees,” Amir-Abdollahian said. “The American side showed flexibility on two issues, which were taken into account, and now they have to show flexibility on the guarantees,” he said. The US State Department did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. During the briefing, Amir-Abdollahian made no mention of Iran’s previous demand that the IAEA halt its investigation of traces of uranium at three undeclared sites. Why it matters: The revival of the nuclear deal from which the US withdrew in 2018 appeared to be nearing completion earlier this year. However, the talks stalled in March over a series of snags. They started again earlier this month in Vienna after the EU put forward a new proposal. With an increasingly tight oil market following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a renewed nuclear deal would help lower energy prices after the lifting of sanctions from Iran’s oil market and pour more barrels into Europe.
At least 18 children have been killed in a fire at a church in Egypt
At least 41 people, including 18 children, died after a fire broke out at the Abu Sefein church in Giza’s densely populated Imbaba neighborhood on Sunday, a spokesman for Egypt’s Coptic Church said in a statement citing health officials.
Background: The blaze that tore through the small Coptic church in Giza, in greater Cairo, on Sunday also killed 14. At least 18 children were killed, according to hospital documents seen by CNN. The children were between 3 and 16 years old. The fire was caused by an electrical fault in an air conditioning unit, the interior ministry said. Why it matters: The incident highlights the dangers of parts of Egypt’s underdeveloped infrastructure, especially in the country’s poorer and more crowded neighborhoods. In 2020, an electrical fire at a hospital treating Covid-19 patients killed at least seven people.
Five Americans among wounded in Jerusalem shooting attack At least eight people, including five Americans, were injured in a shooting attack targeting a bus near the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City early Sunday morning.
Background: Two Americans are being treated at Hadassah Medical Center and three at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, according to the hospitals. At least two of the injured Americans were tourists, hospitals said. The attacker fled the scene, with members of the security forces, the Shin Bet and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in hot pursuit. Police said an Israeli police aerial unit helicopter was assisting in the search. The suspect later surrendered to the police. The weapon he was carrying was confiscated, according to a police spokesman. Israeli media reported that the suspect is a Palestinian who holds 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 left dozens of Palestinians dead. Last Sunday, a truce was announced between Israel and the Islamic Jihad militant group in Gaza. Although militant groups in Gaza such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad praised the attack, the suspect has no known links to militant groups.
Around the area
A man in the United Arab Emirates has been fined up to 15,000 dirhams (about $4,000) for telling a woman he would “teach her a lesson she would never forget,” state news agency Emarat Alyoum reported.
The woman sued and the Abu Dhabi Family Court ruled in her favor, while the man was fined for material and emotional damages, Emarat Alyoum reported, without elaborating on the cause of the dispute or the details of the two parties. ‘ relationship.
The news comes amid a surge in gender-based violence in the Middle East and growing calls from activists for stronger legal protections for women in the region.
The gruesome killing of student Naira Ashraf in Egypt has sparked a barrage of condemnation and praise for the accused, with some male social media users advocating similar violence against women. Just last week, Egyptian state media reported the murder of another female student by a young man after he allegedly ended their relationship. The man had allegedly threatened to kill her before her death and is now in custody pending an investigation, state media reported. One in three women worldwide has experienced physical or sexual violence at least once in her life, according to UN Women, mostly by intimate partners.
In the Middle East, at least 37% of Arab women have experienced some form of violence in their lives, according to the same UN survey.
By Nadeen Ebrahim
