Iran’s media divided on coverage of Rushdie attack

ISTANBUL (AA) – Iran’s conservative and reformist media is divided over its reaction to Friday’s attack on Salman Rushdie- an Indian-born American-British novelist.

Rushdie was stabbed multiple times by 24-year-old Hadi Matar in New York just as he was about to present his lecture on stage.

Soon after the attack, Iran was pushed into the limelight. The reason was a 1989 death fatwa against the author issued by Ayatollah Khomeini just after Rushdie’s controversial book caricaturizing Islam’s holiest personalities

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Monday refuted any link between the attack on Rushdie and Iran, adding that “no one has the right” to accuse Iran.

Meanwhile, the attack was hailed in Iran’s conservative circles.

Kayhan, a conservative daily known for its leaning toward Khamenei, published a story with the headline “Rushdie suffered divine revenge. It’s time for Trump and Pompeo.”

State-run daily Iran wrote, “34 years after Imam Khomeini’s historical fatwa, he was finally attacked,” the story read.

Mohammad Marandi, a professor at Tehran University, adviser to the delegation that conducts Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the West, said on Twitter: “I will not shed tears for a writer who sows seeds of endless hatred against Islam and Muslims. Rushdie is a pawn of the empire disguised as a postcolonial novelist.”

Marandi hinted it could be a provocation to undermine the possible nuclear deal.

Reformist daily Arman published the headline “The new period of anti-Iranism under the pseudonym Rushdie.”

Reformists in the country fear the latest attack could hamper the nuclear deal talks.

Meanwhile, controversial Islamophobic writer Salman Rushdie’s family has said that he remains in critical condition.

The family said he was taken off the ventilator and additional oxygen, and he was able to say a few words on Saturday.

The young Iranian Hadi Matar who attacked Rushdie remains in police custody.