Author salman rushdie biography fatwa

In , Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini, who led the Islamic revolution in Iran ten years earlier, issued a fatwa — a religious edict — calling for the death of author Salman Rushdie. More than three decades later, at a literary event in New York state, a man who was not yet born when the fatwa was decreed is accused of stabbing the author.

Still, 33 years have passed since the original tumult. Few would have predicted that the fatwa would find a willing taker in Yet the political legacy of the edict was significant. Muslims believe that Muhammad is insan-al-kamil — the complete human being, and the only one who has attained perfection. Islamic law stipulates that a fatwa is valid only under the jurisdiction of a Muslim leader and where Sharia law applies.

And Rushdie was neither an Iranian citizen nor in Iran at the time of the ruling. Theological differences pervade the Iran-Saudi Arabia relationship.

Salman rushdie writing style

And both countries have ambitions for regional dominance. But the fatwa, issued just a day earlier, took the limelight. Saudi Arabia opposed the edict and attempted to work with other Muslim leaders to stop Khomeini using the episode to set himself up as the chief guardian and defender of Muslims and the Islamic world. Footage even emerged of Muslims burning copies in front of the town hall in the British city of Bradford.

For Iran, this was proof that religious leadership could transcend national boundaries, and a political ummah, or Muslim nation, was possible.

Salman rushdie children

Ayatollah Khomeini died a few months after issuing the death sentence on Rushdie, but subsequent Iranian administrations have reaffirmed the fatwa. It is not clear what connection Hadi Matar, the year-old man now charged with the attempted murder of Salman Rushdie, might have had to the wishes of a now-dead leader vying for power in the Muslim world.

Iran has officially denied links with the alleged attacker, who was born and raised in the US in a Lebanese family.