600,000 extra dollars for the head of Salman Rushdie – Le Figaro

In Iran, newspapers controlled by the state promise a new award to that assassinate British author. One way to mark the “anniversary” of the fatwa issued against him in 1989.

Forty Iranian newspapers have added $ 600,000 (543,000 euros) to the reward would be paid to the potential assassin of Salman Rushdie. The goal? Mark “twenty-seventh anniversary of the fatwa,” which is the subject writer since 1989, and “show that it is still in force,” said Amir Mansour, President Saraj Cyberspace Organization, affiliated to the Basij, the paramilitary force founded in 1979 and great ally of the Revolutionary Guards, which guarantee the integrity of the inherited values ​​of the Islamic revolution.

In fact, for 27 years, the British author is targeted by a religious decree criminalizing his book, The Satanic Verses , published in 1988. In 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah the Khomeini, the leader of the Iranian Revolution, had called a few months before his death, all good Muslims to kill the author of the book considered blasphemous. Iranian religious organization had then offered $ 2.7 million to anyone who would apply this fatwa. In 2012, the premium increased to $ 3.3 million, before reaching today the amount of $ 3.9 million for the murder of Salman Rushdie.

Since 1989, the author of Midnight’s Children lives under protection, the Iranian authorities have reported that the fatwa could not be canceled. Yet a slim hope had played in the favor of the British writer. In 1998, the reformist president Mohammad Khatami distanced himself from the fatwa and declared that the threat against Salman Rushdie is completed, after more than 9 years in hiding. But in 2005, the successor of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to the position of Supreme Guide, ended any possibility for the writer to be pardoned. The Supreme Leader stated that the fatwa is still valid, again calling for the killing of Salman Rushdie.

This renewed severity against the author of The Quranic Verses reflects the fear of the mullahs close to Khamenei of Iran an opening to Western powers. Since the agreement on the Iranian nuclear signed with the United States and the lifting of international sanctions, the close supporters of Ali Khamenei see a dim view of this rapprochement initiated by President Hassan Rouhani, a possible source of discredit of the values ​​from of the Islamic Revolution.