Less Seen Video of Ahmad Khomeini's Speech Among Security Forces: Burn Down Embassies

A less-seen video of Ahmad Khomeini, the son of the founder of the Islamic Republic, recently published on social media shows him explicitly urging the 'Intelligence' and 'IRGC' to kill Salman Rushdie, explode libraries in Europe, and burn down embassies. Ahmad Khomeini, son of Ruhollah Khomeini, passed away in 1994. In this speech delivered in March 1991 at a seminar explaining Khomeini's fatwa for the murder of Salman Rushdie, he tells the IRGC, Ministry of Intelligence, Jihad, and Committee forces, 'Do you know if you kill Salman Rushdie, it will have more impact than a hundred years of cultural work?' He refers to his father's fatwa for Rushdie's murder and its endorsement by Ali Khamenei, the current leader of the Islamic Republic, telling government forces that they must work together to kill the author of 'The Satanic Verses' and that 'this no longer requires permission.' Ahmad Khomeini emphasized, 'If you want your revolution to be the center of all faiths and revolutions in the world, you must kill this (Salman Rushdie).' He told the IRGC forces, 'You are the guardians of the Islamic Revolution. Your prophet has been attacked. Are you just sitting around waiting for permission to go abroad or not?' He urged the IRGC, Intelligence, Committee, and Jihad forces: 'Go blow up libraries. Start burning libraries. Burn down embassies. You might get hurt yourself. Didn't you get hurt in the war? Now, if 300-400 of you become martyrs, see if you can kill this one? Can you disrupt Europe or not?' Salman Rushdie faced death threats after Khomeini's fatwa for allegedly insulting sacred values in his novel 'The Satanic Verses' and lived for years under police protection and in hiding. The renowned author, now 75, was attacked by a knife-wielding assailant during a literary festival in New York in August 2022, resulting in the loss of sight in one eye and nerve damage in his hand. Hadi Matar, who attacked Salman Rushdie, stated that he respects Ruhollah Khomeini, the former leader of the Islamic Republic, but did not clarify whether he was inspired by the fatwa for Rushdie's murder. Over the years, Iranian officials have continued to be accused of supporting Khomeini's fatwa for killing Salman Rushdie. Hossein Salami, the commander of the IRGC, on February 2, 2023, referring to Salman Rushdie's fate, said, 'Those who oppose Islam and insult the Quran must live in hiding and have nightmares every night because Muslims will not abandon them, even if decades pass.' According to The Guardian, Ataollah Mohajerani, the Minister of Culture in Mohammad Khatami's government, has been accused of supporting Khomeini's fatwa for the murder of Salman Rushdie. Kazem Kordavani, a member of the Iranian Writers' Association, previously told Voice of America that no writer has welcomed or will welcome the issuance of a fatwa for Salman Rushdie's murder. The Islamic Republic has assassinated several of its opponents over the past four decades, including Shapour Bakhtiar, the last Prime Minister of Iran during Mohammad Reza Shah's reign, Fereydoun Farrokhzad, a prominent artist, Shahrayar Shafigh, a senior officer of the Imperial Navy, and Abdul Rahman Boroumand, a politician and member of the National Front, in European countries. The Islamic Republic's involvement in terrorist acts, such as the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Argentina that resulted in 85 deaths, has also been observed. Hamid Nozari, head of the Iranian Political Refugees Association in Berlin, told Voice of America that a report by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has for the first time clearly referred to the state terrorism of the Islamic Republic. In 2018, plans for a bombing at a Mojahedin-e Khalq gathering in Paris by Assadollah Assadi, the third secretary of the Iranian embassy in Belgium, were uncovered, resulting in a 20-year prison sentence for him. However, Assadi was exchanged with a Belgian prisoner in Iran, an action that the United States considers 'a disgusting example of advancing the political goals' of the Islamic Republic.