Salman Rushdie to blame for attack, says Tehran

An Iran foreign ministry spokesman attacked the author for ‘insulting the sacredness of Islam’, while Britain and the US rushed to his defence.

Salman Rushdie’s ‘road to recovery has begun’ but ‘will be long’ after his stabbing, his agent says. Picture: AFP

Britain and the US condemned Iran on Monday as it sought to justify the attack on Sir Salman Rushdie and blamed The Satanic Verses author for “insulting the sacredness of Islam”.

Nasser Kanaani, a foreign ministry spokesman, provoked outrage by saying that nobody deserved blame for Rushdie being repeatedly stabbed “except him and his supporters”.

In Tehran’s first official comments on the matter, Mr Kanaani said he had no information on the attack “except what we have seen in the media”. He categorically denied that Iran had had any contact with the suspect, Hadi Matar, 24, who has denied attempted murder and assault.

However, Mr Kanaani went on to say that freedom of speech did not justify Rushdie’s “insults on religion and offence on its sanctities”.

“We, in the incident of the attack on Salman Rushdie in the US, do not consider that anyone deserves blame and accusations except him and his supporters,” Mr Kanaani said. “Nobody has the right to accuse Iran in this regard.” Asked about the comments, Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said: “It’s ludicrous to suggest that Salman Rushdie was in any way responsible for this abhorrent attack on him.

“This was not just an attack on him, it was an attack on the right to free speech and expression. And the UK government stands both by him and his family but equally we will stand in defence of free speech around the world.”

Salman Rushdie is seen being loaded onto a medical evacuation helicopter near the Chautauqua Institution after being stabbed in the neck while speaking on stage. Picture: AFP

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, while not directly blaming Tehran for the attack, denounced Iran and praised the writer’s support for freedom of expression and religion. “Iranian state institutions have incited violence against Rushdie for generations, and state-affiliated media recently gloated about the attempt on his life,” Mr Blinken said. “This is despicable.”

Iran’s statement came a day after Rushdie, 75, was taken off a ventilator, with his family and agent saying he was “on the road to recovery” and his defiant sense of humour was intact.

He was attacked on Friday as he was about to give a lecture in upstate New York about freedom of speech and persecuted writers. Rushdie has suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and may lose an eye.

He had faced death threats for more than 30 years after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or Islamic edict, in 1989 demanding his death over his depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in the book.

Matar was born and brought up in the US and is not known to have visited Iran. The home village of his family on Monday resembled his now-deleted social media: it is festooned with images of Iranian leaders.

Yaroun, a quiet village in beautiful mountainside scenery, is in the far south of Lebanon, right up against the Israeli border. Yet it is in a zone controlled by Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militia that is loyal to the Islamic Republic and co-ordinates its military and political activity closely with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Matar’s family’s history is closely bound to the conflicts in the Middle East.

His parents are believed to have emigrated from Yaroun during the period it was occupied by Israeli forces after their invasion of Lebanon during the civil war in 1982. Israeli troops stayed in the far south of Lebanon until 2000.

By that time, Hezbollah had developed into a big political and military actor. It established dominance over the southernmost part of the country. Yaroun and the surrounding area was heavily shelled during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

At some point in the last few years, Matar’s father, Hassan, returned to Yaroun, leaving his wife in America.

When reporters arrived asking after the family, Ali Tehfe, the Yaroun mayor, said it was “better that they leave”. Matar’s father is said to be in hiding.

Even if Matar’s actions were not directed by Iran, there have been reports in American media that he was in touch with Revolutionary Guard figures. In one exchange Matar mused about the possibility of an attack on Rushdie. “It’s not easy,” he allegedly wrote. “But I was thinking to have faith in Allah.”

The Times