Tamara Rapajic
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action against the 15 Khordad foundation while British-American author Salman Rushdie recovers from an attack at the Chautauqua Institution in New York.
US Sanctions
The OFAC announced financial sanctions against the 15 Khordad Foundation, an Iranian-based foundation. These sanctions freeze the foundation’s US-based assets and prevent American citizens from carrying out transactions with the company.
The press release issued by the department blamed the foundation for “having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, an act of terrorism,” for issuing a bounty on Rushdie after the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses.
The 15 Khordad Foundation is a charitable foundation that has proudly placed a bounty on author Salman Rushdie.
The fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, and financially backed by the foundation, has led to the death and injury of others associated with Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses.
Despite the Iranian regime’s attempt to distance itself from the fatwa, the foundation publicly advertises its multi-million-dollar bounty on Rushdie.
Who is Salman Rushdie?
Salman Rushdie is a British-American novelist. He was born in Bombay, now known as Mumbai, while India was still under British occupation. Rushdie has received countless prizes for his work and also holds honorary doctorates at six European and six American Universities.
His writing touches on various religious and political issues which led to controversy surrounding the author.
The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses is Rushdie’s fourth novel. Published in September 1988, the novel portrays a character based on the Prophet Muhammad and his transcriptions of the Quran.
There was an international outcry against the novel. Muslim communities across the globe denounced the book as ‘blasphemous’. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late leader of Iran, issued a fatwa against Rushdie, offering a bounty to anyone who executed the author.
Rushdie subsequently went into hiding, under the protection of Scotland Yard, emerging occasionally and unexpectedly. However, he very recently started to believe his life had returned to normal and that threats against him were minimal.
What injuries did Rushdie sustain?
On the 12th of August, Salman Rushdie was viciously attacked on stage while presenting a speech at the Chautauqua Institution. The author sustained 10 injuries: three to the neck, four to his stomach, one to his right eye, one to his chest and a cut to his right thigh.
Andrew Wiley, Rushdie’s agent, has confirmed that the author has lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand since.
Wiley explained that Rushdie’s wounds are profound, as he sustained “three serious wounds in his neck. One hand has been incapacitated because the nerves in his arm were cut. And he has about 15 more wounds in his chest and torso.”
His agent reassured the public that the author is going to live. However, he did not confirm whether Rushdie had yet been discharged from the hospital. However, he is no longer on ventilator support.
Who was the attacker?
The man accused of stabbing Rushdie is Hadi Matar. On the 18th of August, he pleaded not guilty to second-degree attempted murder and assault charges. However, during a hearing in the Chautauqua County District Court, a grand jury indicted Matar on one count of second-degree attempted murder and respectively second-degree assault. The motive behind the attack remains unclear.
In an exclusive interview with the New York Post, Matar admitted to acting alone in conducting the attack and denied having contact with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The attacker disclosed that he does not like Rushdie, and does not think Rushdie “is a very good person” because he “attacked Islam, he attacked their beliefs, the belief system.”
Matar made these claims despite confessing he had not read The Satanic Verses.
