French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, whose 12 staff members were gunned down in 2015 over cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad considered blasphemous by many Muslims, said Saturday (Aug 13) that nothing justified the stabbing of celebrated British author Salman Rushdie.
Mr Rushdie, who spent years in hiding after an Iranian fatwa ordered his killing, was on a ventilator following a stabbing attack at a literary event in New York state Friday (Aug 12).
Rushdie’s 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses,” which was the subject of a fatwa (religious decree) ordering his execution from Iran’s first supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, drastically changed his life.
Nothing justifies a fatwa, a death sentence,” Charlie Hebdo said. “At the time we are writing these lines, we do not know the motives” of the attacker, it said, speculating ironically whether it was spurred by global warming, the decline in purchasing power or a ban on watering potted plants during the current heatwave.
Some Muslims believed the book disrespected Islam and the Prophet Mohammed.
Rushdie was attacked just before he was set to speak at the Chautauqua Institution outside of New York City. The audience, which was later evacuated, consisted of about 2,500 persons. After the attack, the Chautauqua Institution released a statement saying, “What many of us witnessed today was a violent expression of hate that shook us to our core,” the Chautauqua Institution said in a statement following the attack”.
Salman Rushdie, an Indian-born British citizen who has lived in the US for the past 20 years, has endured threats because of his novel The Satanic Verses from 1988. The book was viewed as derogatory to the Prophet Mohammed by some clerics.
Iranian president Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for his murder and set a bounty on his head. In the UK, he lived under police protection for almost ten years while hiding and moving homes frequently.
Following the Iranian government’s declaration that it would not implement the “fatwa” or edict in 1998, Mr. Rushdie started to come out of hiding. Rushdie has been a resident of the US since 2000.
