A professor at Oberlin College is being criticized when it was discovered he supported the reward Iran set on Salman Rusdie’s life in 1989, which ultimately led to the author’s gruesome stabbing last week.
Currently a theology professor at Oberlin College in Ohio, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati was the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations in 1989 when Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie.
When queried about the fatwa in a 1989 Reuters article, Mahallati allegedly defended Iran’s authority to place a reward on a person’s head.
I believe that all Islamic nations concur with Iran. All Islamic nations and states agree with Iran that blasphemous statements against religious leaders must be denounced.
Iran issued the fatwa on Rushdie, 75, over his 1989 book The Satanic Verses, which was deemed offensive to Islam by the Muslim world. Since the publication of the reward, the author has been compelled to live mostly in secret, and it has recently reached $3 million.
On Friday, while speaking at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York, Rushdie was stabbed 15 times. Although the motives of the perpetrator, 24-year-old Hadi Matar, remain unknown, it is believed that his assault was in retaliation to the fatwa.
Rushdie remained in critical condition throughout the weekend, but his family reported on Sunday that he was no longer on a ventilator and in good spirits.
In his academic career, Mahallati has taught a variety of courses on “peace studies,” but he has not commented on the murder. The College of Oberlin has not remarked on the professor’s 1989 position on the Fatwa. Friday, following the assault on Salman Rushdie, Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad tweeted Mahallati’s remarks.
“Guess who supports Khomeini’s FATWA against #Salmon Rushdie,” she added, along with a screenshot of the 1989 Reuters article in which the professor made his remarks.
“We Iranians want that [Oberlin College] examine Mahallati, the former ambassador of the Islamic Republic to the United Nations who upholds the Fatwa against Salman Rushdie. I can supply several other papers demonstrating his participation in concealing up the 1988 mass executions in Iran.
According to Fox News, Alinejad is the subject of a fatwa, with Iran issuing an order for her kidnapping and murder from her New York City residence.
The appearance of Professor Mahallati’s remarks about the Rushdie fatwa is not his first brush with controversy.
In 2018, a study by Amnesty International determined that as an Iranian ambassador in 1988, Mahallati had committed “crimes against humanity” by concealing up the killing of 5,000 dissident detainees.
Mahallati has angrily disputed charges that he participated in a cover-up, claiming he was unaware of the killings at the time.
Oberlin college initiated an inquiry into the claim in response to student requests for Mahallati’s dismissal, but concluded, “The college could discover no evidence to verify the accusations against Prof. Mahallati, including that he had particular knowledge of the killings taking place.”
Matar’s counsel submitted a not guilty plea on his behalf at his Saturday appearance in western New York. The defendant arrived in court with his wrists shackled in front of him, wearing a black and white jumpsuit and a white face mask.
Matar obtained an advance ticket to the event where the author was speaking and arrived a day early with a phony identification, according to District Attorney Jason Schmidt, who informed the court that Matar had taken efforts to place himself in a position to injure Rushdie.
Meantime, on the same day, Iran’s crazed state media enthusiastically hailed the assault on Salman Rushdie, praising the alleged knifeman and labeling Rushdie a ‘apostate’ and ‘heretic’ whose work The Satanic Verses ‘blasphemed’ the Prophet Muhammad.
