Salman Rushdie’s Attacker Praised & Rewarded by Iranian Foundation 

An Iranian organization openly praised the man who attacked and seriously injured noted novelist Salman Rushdie in 2022. This Iranian foundation also promised to reward this assailant with 1,000 square metres of agricultural land, reported Iran’s state TV.

In this lethal attack, 75-year-old Rushdie lost an eye and one of his hands became unusable. The attacker was a 24-year-old Shi’ite Muslim American from New Jersey. He attacked the author on the stage of a literary event held near Lake Erie in western New York in August 2022. He has pleaded not guilty to second-degree attempted murder and assault charges.

“We sincerely thank the brave action of the young American who made Muslims happy by blinding one of Rushdie’s eyes and disabling one of his hands,” said Mohammad Esmail Zarei, secretary of the Iranian foundation that has decided to reward the assailant.

“Rushdie is now no more than living dead and to honour this brave action, about 1,000 square metres of agricultural land will be donated to the person or any of his legal representatives,” Zarei added.

Thirty-three years ago Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Iran’s supreme leader, issued a fatwa, calling on Muslims to assassinate Rushdie after his book “The Satanic Verses” was published. The Iranian ruler and a section of Muslims termed some passages in the novel about the Prophet Muhammad to be blasphemous. A bounty was declared to assassinate Rushdie.

To save his life, Rushdie spent nine years in hiding under British police protection.

Khomeini’s successor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was suspended from Twitter in 2019 for saying the fatwa against Rushdie was “irrevocable.”