Iran's government has denied any link to the attacker who stabbed writer Salman Rushdie in New York last Friday. However, he does not condemn the attack and holds the writer himself responsible for what happened for "insulting 1,500 million Muslims.
"We do not consider anyone other than him (Rushdie) and his followers worthy of blame and even condemnation," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told a news conference.
This is the first official Iranian reaction since the stabbing attack on the author of The Satanic Verses, who continues to be hospitalized in serious condition with liver, kidney and eye damage, which he could lose. A spokesman for the writer has indicated that he is doing well and that he no longer needs a respirator, but stresses that the recovery will be slow.
The Foreign Minister reproaches Rushdie for having provoked the anger of the public by insulting Islam and more than 1,500 million Muslims. "Salman Rushdie provoked public anger by insulting holy Islam and 1.5 billion Muslims," Kanani said.
The spokesman made no reference to Khomeini's fatwa calling for Rushdie's assassination in 1989, forcing the writer to spend years in hiding.
Instead, he denied links to the attacker, the young American-born Hadi Matar of Lebanese origin, and any Iranian responsibility.
"We definitively reject any link with the attacker," the spokesman said. "No one has the right to accuse Iran," added the diplomat.
Kananí also called for not using freedom of expression to insult the beliefs of others. "Freedom of expression cannot justify the abuse of divine religions and their principles," she said. “We ask for impartial freedom of expression to be applied,” she added.
The satanic verses aroused the ire of Shiite Muslims, who considered it an insult to the Koran, Muhammad and the Islamic faith and was banned in India, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.
Within months of its publication, Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie's assassination, forcing the writer to spend years in hiding.
Years later, in the 1990s, then-moderate Iranian President Mohammad Khatami distanced himself from the fatwa, saying the government was not seeking Rushdie's death.
However, the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, reiterated its validity in 2017: "The decree continues as it was issued by Khomeini." Two years later, he would again stress that the fatwa "is irrevocable."
