Iranian Media Celebrate the Stabbing of Salman Rushdie

Below are translated excerpts from two Spanish-language newspapers concerning the Iranian reaction to yesterday’s stabbing of Salman Rushdie in Chautauqua, New York. Many thanks to Gary Fouse for the translations.

The first article is from Excelsior (Mexico), quoting the Iranian daily Kayhan, which is said to represent the views of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran:

On Saturday Kayhan, the principal ultraconservative daily in Iran, congratulated the man in the United States who stabbed Salman Rushdie, the British writer of Indian origin who wrote The Satanic Verses, the work for which the Iranian religious leader, Khomeini, issued a fatwa condemning him to death in 1989.

“Congratulations to this brave and duty-conscious man who attacked the apostate and depraved Salman Rushdie in New York,” declared the newspaper, whose head is appointed by the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“We kiss the hands of him who cut the throat of the enemy of God with a knife,” the article added.

The second article is from the Spanish daily El Pais:

Although New York authorities are declining to comment on the nationality and other information on the perpetrator, and, for the moment, about his motives, the expert on Islamism Romain Caillet stated on Twitter that [the alleged knifeman Hadi] Matar is of Lebanese origin and a follower of the pro-Iran Shiite militia party, Hezbollah. In Iranian media, the news was received with jubilation. “A Lebanese hero,” the website “Iran in Arabic” called the attacker in a tweet that was later removed. From Beirut, a spokesman for Hezbollah stated on Saturday that the group knew nothing about the attack. Caillet explained, nevertheless, that Matar was using a false driver’s license issued in New Jersey in the name of Hassan Mughniyah. Imad Mughniyah was chief of security and one of the most important Hezbollah commanders, eliminated by Israel in Damascus in 2008.

20 thoughts on “Iranian Media Celebrate the Stabbing of Salman Rushdie

  1. Can’t say I much care one way or the other if some second rate has-been writer gets offed by an islamist for the intended provocation of generations of islamists. He knew what devils he was unleashing when he wrote his Satanic Verses. Probably tangentially offensive to christians too, but I don’t go in for that sort of thing.

    All I can say is that the attacker didn’t seem to serious about killing him, since he didn’t stick that pig with a couple of vials of fake vaxx or dose the edges of his blade with the same.

    • I believe that obscurantists of all kinds should be insulted and provoked. They insult the Logos!
      Otherwise, why even live in the world?

    • I hope you don’t find out the hard way that when the rule of law is absent, anyone may stab anyone, for any reason. Neither does the attacker believe in free speech, which you make use of in your offensive way. If you are allowed free speech, why is it not allowed for Rushdie?

      • Because there’s a difference in writing on online forums such as this one and publishing a work that was from the start intended to be publicly highly provocative to a group of crazies that take such insults very personally and have a history of killing those who do so.

        Mr Rushdie was after notoriety, and, likely riches when he published The Satanic Verses. He got both. And the taxpayer got stuck with paying for an expensive security detail for him for the next 30+ years.

        Every normal person knows there are certain sleeping dogs that one shouldn’t kick. And that free speech isn’t without consequences. If I walked into one of Detroit’s innumerable ghettos and started yelling racial slurs, or the suburbs of Malmo and started burning Korans, or started posting anti-jewish stuff on this site (or just about any other site for that matter) I know that there would be consequences. Two of the three examples would end with myself in the hospital if I was lucky, and the third would end with myself banned or fired depending upon who took exception.

        To sum it up, no one denied Rushdie free speech to write what he did and that is as it should be. But he damned well should have known there would be consequences and that from the moment he published his book his life would be forfeit from the many who still live in uncivilized societies that take insults to islam very personally. And that rule of law doesn’t mean very much to the kinds of people who would try to kill an author for writing something he intended to be blasphemous to them.

    • The moon is [ad hominem redacted].
      The moon, you have no idea what are you talking about.It is not about Salman, it is about killing all that are against the criminal Islam
      It is about where it was done as well.
      It was done in USA so the hand of allah ( curses be upon him) is everywhere.[insult redacted] Think
      It is our back yard and we have to be watchful always.
      I would say more about you but It will be not published.
      [ad hominem redacted].

    • Moon,

      If the attacker wasn’t too serious about killing Rushdie, he came very close. Frankly, you don’t make a lot of sense.

      • I apologize if my dry style of humor is too subtle for you.

        If you had read my entire post you would have realized I was casting derision on Rushdie, whom I think is a pig even though many conservative free speech types see him as some kind of hero and martyr because islamists want to kill him, and also deriding the fools who believe in the efficacy of covid vaccines. My point being that the attacker wasn’t really trying to kill him since he only used a knife instead of a vaccine known to kill for his assassination attempt. Of course I believe his attacker was trying to kill him.

        As for Rushdie’s sainthood amongst conservatives and free speech types, he wrote a book called “The Satanic Verses”. If it had been some work directed at insulting Christians like “The Last Temptation of Christ” then it would be christians upset with him and he’d have been welcome in any muslim country.

        • Even if I don’t like someone, I am usually not anxious to see him harmed.

          • I don’t believe that I said anywhere that I was anxious to see him hurt; just that I found him repulsive and that he shouldn’t have been shocked that his publishing his book would lead to islamists wanting to kill him.

        • “Moon”, Rushdie is not the most attractive personality on the planet. However…

          My parents’ generation spent six years fighting fascists to defend our freedom of speech, not so we could surrender that right to religious fascists.

          Islam is a belief system, like Christianity or communism, and should be subject to criticism and ridicule. If there is just one lesson to take from the 1930s and ’40s, it should be that one should never make concessions to bullies as they will always demand more.

          • Funny in a very amusing way, is that you voted for socialists who are killing your country as we speak, and the so called conservatives are just as much of a joke as the bloody socialists you have voted for all your life. Yet somehow think you are better than the fascists? Too bloody funny! At least those bloody fascists would have never ever allowed the GD 3rd world inside any western country, or threw South Africa and Rhodesia under the bus like you bloody Brits did, or allowed 3rd worlders to rape and traffic over a million native white girls in a so called modern western country, and you voted for it all with great fanfare and a hearty hear hear and a cup of tea.

          • Replying to your post of the 15th, G, if it was meant for me, I’ve never voted for a “socialist” party in the UK.

          • Mark old friend, if you voted for the liberal party, you voted for socialists, it is that coldly simple.

    • I like the fact that when Rushdie speaks it sends the bloody muslims into a frothing frenzy. I say provoke the hell out of the muslims, for the more they act, the quicker we can finally deal with them once and for all time.

    • So, should people just shut up because they know the consequences? He is an author, an artist and he can publish any damn book he likes. The Islamic followers are great at justifying any reason to be offensive to their religion. So, should we stop publishing books criticising them? I have read your other replies and you support free speech for online posters but for authors, you talk about consequences!

      You know what the consequence to such speech should have been? More speech! People in opposition of his views could have insulted and debated him. What about Charlie Hebdo? Are they now guilty of ‘ unnecessary provocation ‘ in your eyes? They insulted every religion but no one attacked on their person, except for islam. What about Geert Wilders, who now has to live in protection? What about Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who came under muzzle attack simply because she criticised the way islam treats women?

      You, sir, are [insults and ad hominem redacted].

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