Salman Rushdie

New Jersey resident Hadi Matar will be sentenced on April 23.

Hadi Matar is accused of “providing material support and resources” to Iran’s Lebanese terror proxy.

“A satellite state of Iran. Is this what the progressive movements of the Western left want to create?” the author asked.

A recent State Department report to Congress revealed Iranian threats of assassination of high-level American officials, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook.

According to the Treasury Department, the Iranian entity 15 Khordad Foundation, increased the bounty on Rushdie which was put on after a fatwa (religious edict) against Rushdie by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after the 1989 publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses.” It was reaffirmed in 2017 by Iran’s current supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

They said the university’s statement did not go far enough and again called upon officials to condemn Professor Nader Hashemi’s claims.

Nader Hashemi suggested that Israel’s motive for such an attack is its opposition to efforts in reviving the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.

“In this regard, no one can blame the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said Nasser Kanaani, spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry. “We believe that the insults made and the support he received was an insult against followers of all religions.”

Sources say it is “clear” that at some point before the attack, Hadi Matar had been in contact with “people either directly involved with or adjacent to the” IRGC Quds Force.

A “fatwa” (religious edict) was placed on the author by Iran in the late 1980s; it has since been upgraded to a $3.3 million bounty.