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DUBAI: The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has warned France and the editors of Charlie Hebdo magazine that they may face the same fate as Salman Rushdie after the magazine published more cartoons mocking Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Rushdie has received death threats since the 1980s when he published his controversial book “The Satanic Verses.”
He spent nearly 10 years in hiding as the book sparked outrage in Islamic countries, and in 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini, then supreme leader of Iran, issued a fatwa — an Islamic ruling — ordering Muslims to kill the author.
Rushdie was stabbed last year at a literary festival in New York, where he sustained severe injuries.
“I advise the French and directors of the Charlie Hebdo magazine to take a look at the fate of Salman Rushdie,” said Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, according to Iran’s Mehr News Agency on Tuesday.
“Do not play with Muslims. Salman Rushdie insulted the Qur’an and the Holy Prophet of Islam 30 years ago and hid in dangerous places.”
Charlie Hebdo last week published the winning cartoons in a competition that called for people around the world to draw the most offensive caricatures of the ayatollah as an act of support toward the protest movement in Iran.
The publication of the cartoons has resulted in increased animosity between Iran and France, with the former closing down the French Institute for Research.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the closure of the institute a “first step” in response to the cartoons, and said it would “seriously pursue the case and take the required measures” to hold France accountable.
In the face of these threats, the satirical magazine doubled down and published a magazine cover that mocks Iran again this week. The cover depicts mullahs entering and exiting a naked woman’s womb while her legs are splayed. “It took us a week to find the exit,” reads the caption.
An editorial inside described the cyberattack on Charlie Hebdo’s website after the publication of the special edition last week, which the magazine is investigating but said was “highly likely” to have been carried out by Iran.
The editorial read: “A computer attack does not cause deaths, but it sets the tone.
“The mullahs’ regime would feel so in danger that it would consider it vital for its existence to hack the site of a French newspaper.
“It is an honor but above all proof that their power feels very fragile.”