The announcement highlights the political infighting between hardliners and reformists in Iran during the run-up to this week’s elections for Parliament and the Assembly of Experts. Iranian hard-line organisations often make symbolic gestures to mark the anniversary of Rushdie’s fatwa on Feb.

Feb 22, 2016: Iranian state-run media outlets add $600,000 to a bounty for the killing of Rushdie.

(Somewhat unsurprisingly, Saneyi had been appointed to lead the Foundation by Khomeini himself. 'As the historic order of Khomeiny to kill the apostate Salman Rushdie has not yet been fulfilled, attacks like this film continue to offend the prophet', declared the ayatollah

'Tant que l'ordre historique de Khomeiny de tuer l'apostat Salman Rushdie n'aura pas été exécuté, les attaques comme celle de ce film offensant le prophète se poursuivront', a déclaré l'ayatollah (Rushdie's knighthood, itself a source of controversy in Iran, was some 5 years prior.) Apparently it was the release of the film 'Innocence of Muslims' which triggered this increase. It was actually a bit hard to figure out what triggered this. Sept 16, 2012: Iranian religious foundation raises its bounty for killing Rushdie to $3.3 million.Oct 4, 1998: Some 160 members of the Iranian parliament say the death decree against Rushdie remains valid.Ī slightly more detailed article on that reveals that was a majority of the parliament, so effectively rebuking the (more moderate) government. Sept 22, 1998: Iranian President Mohammad Khatami says the Rushdie affair is 'completely finished'. As Reuters summarizes a bit of the timeline.įeb 12, 1997: Eight years after it first offered a reward, the Iranian revolutionary 15th Khordad Foundation increases the bounty on Rushdie's head to $2.5 million. Additionally, it seems the bounty on Rushdie (initially set up by a para-governmental religious foundation - a bonyad) was also used as a proxy when other things deemed blasphemous happened. Whatever Khomeini calculations and reasons may have been, Rushdie sentence thereafter became 'political football' between the Iranian hardliners and the more moderate factions (which sometimes formed the government) or during elections. The fatwa, as communicated on the Iran radio, is extremely short, and doesn't get into much specifics of the charges the gist of it being 'the author of The Satanic Verses, a text written, edited, and published against Islam, the Prophet of Islam, and the Qu’ran, along with all the editors and publishers aware of its contents, are condemned to death so that no one will dare insult the sacred beliefs of Muslims henceforth'.

Apparently Khomeini didn't issue the fatwah until 6 months after the book was published, when there were riots in neighboring Pakistan on the issue. Wrod's answer is interesting, but I was looking for a more political explanation.

Guess the movie answers level 58