Rushdie Will Be Killed Eventually, Iranians Declare
Iranian radical leaders said Wednesday that no matter how closely he is guarded, British author Salman Rushdie will be killed in accordance with the edict issued by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini just months before his death.
Parliament Speaker Mahdi Karrubi and Parliament member Ali Akbar Mohtashemi spoke to Iran’s Parliament on the one-year anniversary of Khomeini’s death sentence against Rushdie, who is accused of blaspheming Islam in his novel “The Satanic Verses.”
Rushdie has been in hiding under guard since Feb. 14, 1989.
“Neither the passage of time nor Salman Rushdie’s repentence” will affect the death edict, said Mohtashemi, the former interior minister and a hard-liner in the Iranian Parliament, was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
Tehran Radio, monitored in Nicosia as was the IRNA report, quoted Karrubi as telling legislators that “however much Salman Rushdie may be kept under guard, eventually a Muslim will carry out the edict.”
In recent interviews, Rushdie said his book was not meant to as an affront to Muslims, but he said that he stands by what he has written.
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