Iran denies being involved in the attack on Salman Rushdie

An Iranian official denied on Monday that Iran was involved in the attack on author Salman Rushdie. The remarks by Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry, came over two days after the attack on Rushdie in New York at the literary event. 

The Iranian official reportedly said, “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. Nobody has the right to accuse Iran in this regard.”

Rushdie was attacked on stage at an event in western New York state in the United States on Friday. A man stabbed him in the neck and torso when he was about to give a lecture at the event. Rushdie’s interviewer, Henry Reese, was also attacked and suffered a minor head injury. 

The author faced death threats from Iran in the late 1980s. Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had issued a fatwa, or Islamic edict, demanding his death over his 1988 book, “The Satanic Verses”. His writing was considered disrespectful to the Prophet Mohammed by some clerics. Rushdie spent nearly a decade under police protection in the United Kingdom (UK).

Kanaani reportedly said that freedom of speech does not justify Rushdie's insults upon religion. He also said that Iran did not have any other information about the recent attack other than what the American media has shown on Television. 

Rushdie’s assailant, 24-year-old Hadi Matar, had images of Iranian commander Qassem Solemani, who was assassinated in 2020, on his phone. His social media revealed that he was sympathetic to "Shia extremism". However, Matar has pleaded not guilty to charges of the attack through his lawyer.

Many US leaders slammed the recent attack on Rushdie. Many leaders also demanded strict action against the accused. Further investigations are underway on this matter.