Fatwa

The Rushdie Fatwa

One of the most famous “death” fatwas in modern times was the 1989 decree issued by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the then leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, calling for the death of the British writer Salman Rushdie. The fatwa declared that Rushdie should be executed for having insulted Islam in his novel The Satanic Verses, published in late 1988. It also called for the death of any editor or publisher involved in publishing the novel. The fatwa read, in full:

A group in Iran offered a reward for anyone, Muslim or non-Muslim, who killed Rushdie. Rushdie spent the following 10 years in hiding and received round-the-clock police protection.

On February 12, 1997, the Iranian charitable foundation, 15 Khordad, announced an increase in the reward for the murder of Salman Rushdie to $2.5 million. At the same time, the Iranian government gave its assurances that it would not send anyone to kill Rushdie, but it also said it could not revoke the fatwa.

While Rushdie himself has not been attacked, some of those associated with Rushdie's work have not escaped the fatwa. A Japanese translator of the book, Hitoshi Igarashi, and an Italian translator, Ettore Capriolo, were stabbed in their own countries in July 1991. Igarashi died immediately and Capriolo was seriously injured. The Norwegian publisher of the book, William Nygaard, was shot at three times outside his home in Oslo in 1993, but he survived the attempt on his life. No one was arrested in any of those cases.

Other Controversial Fatwas

In October 1999 a British cleric issued a fatwa calling for the death of the American playwright Terrence McNally, the author of a controversial play that portrays Jesus Christ as a homosexual crucified as the King of Queers. The Shariah (Islamic law) court of the United Kingdom issued the fatwa, saying McNally had insulted Jesus, who is a prophet in the Koran. The fatwa was signed by Omar Bakri Muhammad, an extremist cleric who at the time was a judge of the UK Shariah court.

During the Gulf War, Muhammad had issued a fatwa calling for the assassination of the former British prime minister John Major. He stated, “The fatwa is to express the Islamic point of view that those who are insulting to Allah and the Messengers of God must understand it is a crime.” Muhammad has since left Great Britain and been barred from returning.

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