Students Offer Cash for Rushdie’s Death
A hard-line Iranian student group has offered more than $330,000 to anyone who kills Salman Rushdie, the second bounty on the British author’s head.
The move, reported in a newspaper Saturday, came just weeks after the relatively moderate government of President Mohammad Khatami distanced itself from the death edict and an earlier reward of $2.5 million.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the fatwa, or religious edict, on Rushdie in 1989, claiming his book “The Satanic Verses” blasphemed Islam. The semiofficial 15 Khordad Foundation later offered the $2.5-million reward.
The Assn. of Hezbollah University students said that they remain ready to carry out the death sentence against Rushdie and are willing to pay 1 billion rials, the equivalent of $333,000, to anyone who kills him, Kayhan newspaper reported.
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