Iran accuses Salman Rushdie and his supporters of stabbing

• Iran has “categorically” denied any involvement with Salman Rushdie’s assailant and has placed the blame squarely on the author.
• During a performance in New York state, Mr. Rushdie, 75, was stabbed on stage and suffered serious injuries.
• The strike has received widespread commentary in Iranian media, which has dubbed it “divine punishment.

 Iran has “categorically” denied any involvement with Salman Rushdie’s assailant and has placed the blame squarely on the author.

During a performance in New York State, Mr. Rushdie, 75, was stabbed on stage and suffered serious injuries. He can now breathe on his own.

Because of his 1988 book The Satanic Verses, he has endured years of death threats.

Prior to this, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken referred to Iran’s state media’s actions as “despicable” for bragging about the attack.

The strike has received widespread commentary in Iranian media, which has dubbed it “divine punishment.”

An eye of the Devil has been blinded, according to Iran’s official news outlet Jaam-e Jam, which highlighted the news that Rushdie would lose an eye as a result of the attack.

Eyes were focused on Tehran, where the fatwa, or religious decree, initially called for the writer’s murder more than three decades ago, as news of the incident on Friday spread.

However, on Monday, Nasser Kanaani, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, stated that Tehran “categorically” denied any connection and added that “no one has the authority to accuse the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

However, he asserted that the right to free expression did not excuse Mr. Rushdie from disparaging religion in his writing.

During his weekly press conference in Tehran, the spokesman declared, “We do not consider anyone other than Salman Rushdie and his supporters worthy of blame and even condemnation in this incident.”

Salman Rushdie “has exposed himself to the fury and rage of the people by insulting the sacred things of Islam and breaking the red lines of more than 1.5 billion Muslims and all followers of the heavenly religions.”

Additional to what had been reported in the media, Iran had no other knowledge about Rushdie’s attacker, he continued.

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