An Iranian foundation close to the country's Islamic government has praised the man who is accused of violently attacking novelist Salman Rushdie last year, leaving the writer severely injured, and said it was offering him a reward of farmland.
The Foundation to Implement Imam Khomeini's Fatwas, according to local Iranian media on February 21, made the offer to 24-year-old Hadi Matar, a Shi'ite Muslim American from New Jersey who is accused of jumping on stage last year to attack Rushdie during a literary event held at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York state.
The attack, which left Rushdie blind in one eye and without the use of one hand, was "the brave act of a young American trying to carry out a historic verdict," the foundation said.
The Satanic Verses, which Rushdie wrote, was banned in Iran. A year after it was published in 1988, Iran’s leader at the time, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa calling for the author’s death.
Rushdie, who was forced into hiding for many years because of the fatwa, dismissed the threat at the time, saying there was no evidence of people being interested in the reward.
Still, a Japanese translator of the book was stabbed to death in 1991, while an Italian translator survived a knife attack. In 1993, the book’s Norwegian publisher was shot three times and survived.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has never issued a fatwa of his own withdrawing the earlier edict, though Iran in recent years hasn’t focused on the 75-year-old writer.
The foundation, however, remains active in supporting the fatwa and says that "the same amount of farmland" -- 1,000 square meters -- will also be handed over to those who eventually take Rushdie's life.
The Iranian entity 15 Khordad Foundation raised the bounty for Rushdie in 2012 to $3.3 million from $2.8 million.
In October 2022, the United States sanctioned the 15 Khordad Foundation "for providing financial support for an act of terrorism."
Matar, who has been in custody since the attack, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges in what a prosecutor called a “preplanned” crime.
NBC News quoted a law enforcement official as saying that Matar's social media accounts showed him to be sympathetic to Shi'ite extremism and the causes of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Matar praised Khomeini in an interview with The New York Post after his arrest. He also spoke of his dislike for Rushdie.
Born in Mumbai, India, Rushdie holds British and U.S. citizenship and has lived in New York since 2000.
Matar was born in the United States to parents who emigrated from Yaroun in southern Lebanon.