Bounty for killing Indian-born Author Runs to Millions

February 23, 2016 | 12:04 PM | 3 Views
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Twenty seven years after Iran’s supreme leader ordered the death of Salman Rushdie and publishers of his book The Satanic Verses for “blaspheming” Islam, dozens of state-run media organizations are jointly offering a new reward for the assassination of the British author.

Among the biggest single contribution to the combined $600,000 bounty was a donation of around $33,000 from the Fars news agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

According to a report the reward offer  timed to coincide with anniversary of the 1989 death edict  in an item illustrated with a sketch of Rushdie, with a target painted on his head.

A year after Rushdie’s controversial novel was published, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in February 1989, accusing him of blasphemy and apostasy  Rushdie was born to an Indian Muslim family  and calling on Muslims to kill him and anyone associated with publishing the book.

An Iranian religious organization offered a $2.7 million reward to anyone carrying out the fatwa and in 2012 it increased the amount to $3.3 million.

After the fatwa was issued, Rushdie lived in Britain under police protection and went into hiding for several years.

The death threat sent Rushdie into hiding under 24hour police protection, and triggered attacks on bookstores and assassination attempts against publishers  successful in at least one case, the 1991 murder of a Japanese translator.

It also soured relations between Iran and Britain for many years, with diplomatic ties only restored in 1998.

Over the years, Rushdie and other critics have accused Western governments, publishers and corporations of practicing self-censorship and appeasement in the face of Muslim threats.

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