Whither Reformism in Iran?

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

Today Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reaffirmed the fatwa against Salman Rushdie.  Speaking to Muslim pilgrims making hajj, Khamenei described Rushdie as as a "mahdour al-damm mortad," meaning that he is an apostate whose blood may be shed with impunity.  Previously, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami had indicated in 1998 that the Iranian government would not carry out the death sentence against Rushdie, describing the affair as "completely finished."  Thereafter, Britain and Iran formally upgraded their relationship to the level of ambassador.

This is not the first time the fatwa has been renewed.  In 1999, an Iranian foundation put a $2.8 million bounty on Rushdie's head.  In 2001, both the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Islamic Propagation Organization (IPO) also renewed the fatwa.  And now Iran's supreme leader has also clearly come down in favor of killing Rushdie.

While it is sad -- but not unexpected -- to see such barbarity issue from Khamenei's lips, it is truly amusing to witness the kind of mental gymnastics some politicos have performed in trying to pretend that there's no real problem here.  For example, the Times of London reports that "senior British officials swiftly made plain last night that the Iranian Government, which had disassociated itself from the fatwa in 1998, had not changed its position.  They pointed out that because the fatwa was issued in February 1989 by Iran's revolutionary founder and Khamenei's predecessor, Ayatollah Khomeini, who had since died, it would always remain in existence."  Er, well, I guess that's okay then.

One senior British official stated, "Almost every time that the current supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, gives a sermon he mentions Salman Rushdie in these terms and denounces him as a man who has insulted the name of the Prophet and who can therefore be killed.  It's just the standard rhetoric."  And rhetoric threatening people with death for blaspheming Islam is completely harmless, of course.

One final amusing note from the Times story:  "In 1998 Kamal Kharazi, the Iranian Foreign Minister, promised his British counterpart, Robin Cook, that Iran would do nothing to implement the fatwa, despite a $2.8 million bounty placed on Rushdie's head by a foundation in Iran."  How nice of Kharazi to make that promise!  I guess the Iranian government was just too busy at the time to actually make the foundation withdraw its proffered bounty?

TrackBack