(Tehran) At the book market in Tehran, everyone is aware on Saturday of the aggression suffered the day before by the British writer Salman Rushdie in the United States, but only those who support this attack are speaking out.
Posted at 10:37 a.m.
More than 30 years after the publication of satanic versesthe book and its author still smell of sulfur in Iran and in the streets of the capital no one dares to openly condemn the attack.
In 1989, the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, issued a “fatwa” calling for his assassination, forcing the British author to hide for years and live under police protection.
Born in India into a family of non-practicing Muslim intellectuals, Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the neck and abdomen in New York state on Friday by a man who has been arrested. He has been placed on a ventilator and is at risk of losing an eye according to his agent Andrew Wylie.
PHOTO ATTA KENARE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Iranians watch newspaper headlines at a newsstand in Tehran.
“I was very happy to hear the news. Whoever is the author (of the attack), I kiss his hand […] May God curse Salman Rushdie, ”says Mehrab Bigdeli, who presents himself as a Shiite cleric.
“Western governments spent millions of dollars to protect him, but the Muslims decided to send him to hell,” said the 50-year-old with a salt-and-pepper beard, a military cap screwed on his head, smiling.
Several people interviewed by AFP, however, refused to comment on the attack on Salman Rushdie in front of a camera, preferring to continue their journey without saying a word.
In rue Enghelab, the heart of the capital’s bookstores, satanic verses is banned unlike some of Mr. Rushdie’s other works such as “Shame”, the Persian version of which was awarded by the State in 1985.
“Apostate”
In this artery, frequented mainly by students, because it is near the University of Tehran, stands a huge portrait of Ayatollah Khomeini, who described the writer as an “apostate”.
“Salman Rushdie had written a book and according to Imam Khomeini, his execution was authorized because he had expressed blasphemous ideas in his novel. I was happy to hear the news,” says Ahmad, a management student.
But while the major powers are striving to relaunch the Iranian nuclear agreement, at the end of which Iran hopes for a lifting of the heavy sanctions that are weighing on its economy, Ahmad lets his anxiety show.
“This incident may have a negative impact on the negotiations, as Westerners may consider this action to be terrorist,” he said.
Mehrab Bigdeli doesn’t care.
“Of course we want an agreement but only if our religion and our dignity are preserved. It does not matter if the nuclear agreement is compromised, the probable death of Salman Rushdie is more important”, he assures.
If Iran officially did not react to the attack against the British writer, the main Iranian ultra-conservative daily, Kayhan, welcomed it.
“Congratulations to this courageous and duty-conscious man who attacked the apostate and vicious Salman Rushdie,” writes the newspaper, whose boss is appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Asked by the ultra-conservative Fars news agency, Ayatollah Hossein Radaï, professor of theology at Shahed University, also justified the attack.
“A person who turns away from the religion of Islam […] is called an apostate. It was someone like Salman Rushdie who not only rejected Islam [mais] tried to insult him. According to the jurisprudence, such an apostate deserves death,” he said.