Fatwa Fanatic Gets Land For Attack On Stabbed Author

Iran is to reward the fanatical knifeman who attacked British novelist Salman Rushdie with a gift of prime farmland, it has emerged.

Photo shows Salman Rushdie, undated. Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British-American novelist. (Newsflash)

Rushdie was left blind in one eye and suffered severe injuries to his neck and hands during the horrific attack in the US six months ago.

The 75-year-old author had been about to start a lecture in the town of Chautauqua, New York State, when he was stabbed repeatedly by attacker Hadi Matar.

The Satanic Verses author has been living in the shadow of a fatwa death warrant issued by Iran’s former leader Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989.

Matar, 24, was born and raised in America to Lebanese parents.

But he is said to have been an avid supporter of Iran-backed Shia Islamist militant group Hezbollah.

Photo shows Salman Rushdie, undated. Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British-American novelist. (Newsflash)

Now – report Iranian media – Matar is to be rewarded with 1,000 square metres of “fertile” farmland In Iran.

Mohammad Ismail Zarei – head of the Secretariat to Implement Khomeini’s Fatwa on Execution of Salman Rushdie – said: “We sincerely thank the young American for his brave action in carrying out the historic fatwa of Imam Khomeini.”

He went on: “With this action, he blinded Salman Rushdie in one eye and disabled his arm to make Muslims happy.

“Although Salman Rushdie is nothing more than a walking dead, in order to honour this brave action, about a thousand square metres of a valuable and fertile agricultural land will be awarded to the stabber or his legal representative in a special ceremony.”

And in a chilling call to arms, Zarei said anyone who kills Rushdie will also be rewarded with land.

Iranian officials, however, may have to wait for a handover ceremony.

Photo shows Hadi Matar, the man who stabbed Salman Rushdie, undated. Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British-American novelist. (Newsflash)

Matar is currently being held without bail in New York on an attempted murder charge and faces a lengthy jail sentence if convicted.

Rushdie – who was born into a Muslim Kashmiri family in Mumbai before moving to the UK – has long faced death threats for his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses.

It was banned in many countries with large Muslim populations upon its 1988 publication.