Clerical Regime Welcomed and Promoted the Attack on Salman Rushdie Based on Khomeini and Khamenei’s Fatwa

Written by
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

NCRI logoForeign Ministry Condemns Salman Rushdie, and Khamenei’s Mouthpiece, Kayhan, Writes: Salman Rushdie Struck With Divine Revenge; Trump, Pompeo Are Next
Seventy-two hours past the attempted assassination on the life of Salman Rushdie which was consistent with the fatwa issued by the ruling theocracy’s founder, Ruhollah Khomeini, and confirmed by his successor Ali Khamenei, there are more indications about the role of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and its operatives in this crime.

According to Fars, the IRGC-affiliated news agency, Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman of the regime’s Foreign Ministry, voiced support for the attack on Rushdie and brazenly said today: “We don’t consider anyone other than Rushdie and his supporters worthy of blame and even condemnation.” These comments, follow a massive propaganda campaign to blackmail and threaten foreign officials and their opponents.

Javad Karimi Ghoddousi, a member of the Parliament’s Security Commission told ILNA news agency, that today, if the regime “wants to take revenge, it could remotely place an order to individuals who know their way around in Manhattan’s slums, pay them a sum, and they can do the job, rather than sending an IRGC officer, which would likely be very dangerous.”

Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghadam, a member of the regime’s “Expediency Discernment Council” admired the assailant’s actions “We consider this young man’s work to be the right thing to do,” he was quoted by the state-run website, “Martyrs of Iran,” today.

In his post on Twitter, Mostafa Mir Salim, a regime’s parliament deputy and a former presidential candidate, wrote on August 14: “All real and legal persons who supported and defended Salman Rushdie are complicit in his disgraceful fate and should learn a lesson.”

According to Fars, on August 13, Malik Shariati Niaser, the spokesman for the Parliamentary Energy Commission, said: “If the attack on Salman Rushdie is the work of Iran (regime), proves Iran’s power, and if it is the work of someone who has not seen Khomeini and is independent of Iran, then it signifies the export of revolution to the heart of the enemy. In either case, it is a warning to the murderers of martyr Soleimani.”

On August 14, Khamenei’s mouthpiece the Kayhan daily wrote: “The attack on Rushdie showed that it is not a difficult task to take revenge on the American soil.”

A day before that Kayhan wrote, “Well done to that brave and conscientious man who attacked the apostate and evil Salman Rushdie in New York. Kiss him on the hand who gashed the neck of the enemy of God with a knife.” On August 14, in an article titled, “Salman Rushdie struck with divine revenge, Trump and Pompeo are next,” Kayhan added: “The attack on Salman Rushdie showed that revenge against the perpetrators of crimes is possible and punishing criminals on American soil is not a difficult task. After this, Trump and Pompeo will feel more threatened. The Iranian authorities have repeatedly warned that the main perpetrators of the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the Quds Force, will pay for their crime and must be brought to justice.”

IRGC Brig. Gen. Sa’dollah Zarei, one of the Quds Force commanders, wrote in the Qods Force-affiliated Tasnim news agency on August 13: “We welcome and rejoice for the elimination of Salman Rushdie in whatever way it happens; Regardless of how it’s done, this person… should be exterminated… we welcome it… The execution of God’s decree on Salman Rushdie symbolizes the West’s defeat…”

On August 13, Javan, IRGC affiliated daily, wrote: “Striking Salman Rushdie was more like an ‘invisible arrow,’ because sometimes only an invisible arrow executes a sharia ruling, which we heartily wish for.”

The same day, the front-page article of Jam-e-Jam newspaper affiliated with the “Islamic Republic Broadcasting, IRIB,” welcomed the assassination attempt on Salman Rushdie and published his image as the devil. The article’s title read, “The devil’s eye blinded.”

The state-run daily, Howzeh, wrote on August 13: “After 34 years, the implementation of Khomeini’s fatwa is still valid.”

The clerical regime should be shunned by the international community because of executions, massacres, terrorism, and warmongering for four decades. Its leaders should be prosecuted for committing crimes against humanity.

The mullahs do not abide by any promise or obligation. In October 1998, the regime’s then-Foreign Minister, Kamal Kharazi, promised the British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook that the fatwa on Salman Rushdie would not be implemented. And today, any promise by the regime about abandoning nuclear weapons is hollow because it considers a nuclear bomb a guarantee for its survival. In the final years of Nazi Germany, Hitler also aimed to obtain nuclear weapons, but he failed.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

August 15, 2022

Back to top button