Tehran: Even as the world condemned the attack on Salman Rushdie in New York on Friday and called it an assault on the freedom of expression, several hardline newspapers in Iran praised the 24-year-old attacker.
Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei Ayatollah also reportedly praised the attack for carrying out the ‘fatwa like a bullet.’
Rushdie was stabbed by one Hadi Matar in the neck and torso on stage as he was about to deliver a lecture. The attacker, a man from New Jersey, had bought a pass to the event at Chautauqua Institution.
The author was airlifted to a hospital and put on ventilator.
Rushdie’s novel ‘The Satanic Verses’ led to death threats for Rushdie from Iran since 1989.
“A thousand bravos… to the brave and dutiful person who attacked the apostate and evil Salman Rushdie in New York… The hand of the man who tore the neck of God’s enemy must be kissed,” wrote Kayhan newspaper, whose editor-in-chief is appointed by Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Asr Iran news website used an oft-cited quote by late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — who issued a fatwa in 1989 calling Muslims around the world to kill the India-born author – saying the ‘arrow shot by the leader will one day hit the target.’
Vatan Emrooz newspaper headlined the report on Rushdie attack ‘Knife in Salman Rushdie’s neck’.
The Khorasan daily’s headline read: ‘Satan on the way to hell’.
