Iranian Foundation Offers Land to Salman Rushdie’s Attacker

Hadi Matar appears in court on charges of attempted murder and assault on author Salman Rushdie, in Mayville, New York, US - Reuters
Hadi Matar appears in court on charges of attempted murder and assault on author Salman Rushdie, in Mayville, New York, US - Reuters
TT
20

Iranian Foundation Offers Land to Salman Rushdie’s Attacker

Hadi Matar appears in court on charges of attempted murder and assault on author Salman Rushdie, in Mayville, New York, US - Reuters
Hadi Matar appears in court on charges of attempted murder and assault on author Salman Rushdie, in Mayville, New York, US - Reuters

An Iranian foundation has praised a man accused of severely injuring novelist Salman Rushdie in an attack last year and promised him 1,000 sq metres of agricultural land, state TV reported on Tuesday on its Telegram channel.

Rushdie, 75, lost an eye and the use of one hand following the assault on the stage of a literary event held near Lake Erie in western New York state in August.

Hadi Matar, a Shiite Muslim American from New Jersey, has pleaded ‘not guilty’ to charges of second-degree attempted murder and assault.

“We sincerely thank the brave action of the young American who made Muslims happy by blinding one of Rushdie’s eyes and disabling one of his hands,” said Mohammad Esmail Zarei, secretary of the Foundation to Implement Imam Khomeini’s Fatwas.

“Rushdie is now no more than living dead and, to honour this brave action, about 1,000 square metres of agricultural land will be donated to the person or any of his legal representatives.”

The Indian-born novelist was set to deliver a lecture on artistic freedom at the Chautauqua Institution when police say Matar rushed the stage and stabbed him, Reuters reported.

The attack came 33 years after Iran’s late supreme leader Khomeini issued a fatwa or religious edict calling on Muslims to assassinate Rushdie.

Matar’s family comes from the south Lebanon town of Yaroun.

A law enforcement review of Matar’s social media accounts showed he was sympathetic to Shiite extremism and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the NBC New York news outlet.

Streets in Yaroun bear posters of Khomeini, while the logo of Lebanon’s Iranian-armed Hezbollah group adorns monuments to its fighters. Hezbollah said in August it did not know anything about the attack on Rushdie.

Ali Tehfe, mayor of Yaroun, said Matar’s parents had emigrated to the United States, where Matar was born and raised, but that he had no information on their political views.

Rushdie, who was born in India to a Muslim Kashmiri family, spent nine years in hiding under British police protection.

While a pro-reform Iranian government under president Mohammad Khatami distanced itself from the fatwa in the late 1990s, the multimillion-dollar bounty hanging over him has kept growing and the fatwa has never been lifted.

Khomeini’s successor as supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was suspended from Twitter in 2019 for saying the fatwa against Rushdie was “irrevocable”.



Vance Criticizes Germany’s Free Speech Laws in Remarks to Conservatives

 Vice President JD Vance, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2025, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP)
Vice President JD Vance, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2025, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP)
TT
20

Vance Criticizes Germany’s Free Speech Laws in Remarks to Conservatives

 Vice President JD Vance, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2025, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP)
Vice President JD Vance, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2025, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP)

US Vice President JD Vance has criticized Germany's free speech laws during an appearance at a conservative gathering outside Washington, linking the country's limits against hate speech to American troops stationed there.

German law sets restrictions on free speech, including the long-standing ban on Holocaust denial and any glorification of the country's Nazi past.

The limits are an effort to curb extremism and incitement, and have led to authorities policing the internet for hate speech and arresting the people allegedly posting, and reposting, such comments.

“There are thousands upon thousands of American troops in Germany today. Do you think that the American taxpayer is going to stand for that, if you get thrown in jail in Germany for posting a mean tweet? Of course they’re not,” Vance told activists gathered Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

There are nearly 84,000 US service members in the European Theater, according to the US Department of Defense. The figure fluctuates, however, and has increased since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war on Feb. 24, 2022.

The US military is stationed throughout Germany, according to US European Command, including at Ramstein Air Base. A count of US service members in Germany wasn't immediately available on Friday.

Vance's remarks followed his speech earlier this month at the Munich Security Conference, where he lectured European leaders about the state of democracy and free speech across the continent. His comments were met with rebukes from multiple European leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

“Obviously we’re going to continue to have important alliances with Europe,” Vance told CPAC moderator Mercedes Schlapp. “But I really do think the strength of those alliances is doing to depend on whether we take our societies in the right direction.”

Vance then claimed that “Germany’s entire defense is subsidized by the American taxpayers.”