A spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that it was “ridiculous” to suggest that novelist Salman Rushdie was responsible for the attack.
This British statement was published after Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the author was responsible for what happened to him.
In a statement to reporters, the British spokesman said: It is clear that the claim that Salman Rushdie was in any way responsible for this heinous attack on him is absurd.
He added: “This was not just an attack on him, it was an attack on the right to freedom of speech and expression, and the British government stands by him and his family, but we both defend freedom of expression around the world.”
Previously, Nasser Kanani, the spokesman of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Monday “categorically” denied any relationship between Iran and the person who attacked British writer Salman Rushdie during a conference in North America.
According to the Associated Press, Nasser Kanani stressed that “no one has the right to accuse Iran” in his weekly press conference in Tehran and said: “We categorically and officially deny any connection with the perpetrator of this attack.”
Rushdie had received death threats since Khomeini issued a fatwa on the shedding of his blood in 1989 after the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses, accusing the British-Indian author of being “anti-Islamic”.
Rushdi went into hiding for years, the Iranian government later retracted the fatwa, and Rushdi has lived relatively openly in recent years.
On Friday, Rushdie was stabbed in New York, before a scheduled speech, when a man stormed the podium and attacked Rushdie and a panelist.
Rushdie was apparently stabbed in the neck and airlifted to an area hospital, state police said.
Rushdie fell to the ground when the man attacked him and was then surrounded by a small group of people who apparently lifted his legs to send more blood to his upper body.
Source: Lebanon Debate
