Author Salman Rushdie's Death Bounty Increases, Iranians Add $600,000 To His Fatwa

Forty Iranian media outlets have raised $600,000 to add to Salman Rushdie's fatwa that was originally issued against his controversial novel The Satanic Verses.

The proclamation comes 27 years after the fatwa was issued against the British-Indian writer by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who had called for Rushdie's assassination for publishing the book in 1988. A Booker Prize finalist, The Satanic Verses was accused for its blasphemous content and mockery of the Muslim faith. Rushdie became the target of many failed assassination attempts and has been in exile ever since.

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The Iranians have now raised a new death bounty that was issued in 1989.

"Imam Khomeini¡¯s fatwa is a religious decree and it will never lose its power or fade out," said Seyed Abbas Salehi, Iran¡¯s deputy culture minister to Fars.

The book is banned in countries like India, Bangladesh, Sudan, and South Africa.