“Nothing justifies fatwaa death sentence,” writes a French satirical newspaper indignantly. Charlie Hebdo – which was destroyed by an Islamist attack in 2015 – after an attack on the author Salman Rushdiewhich has been the target of an Iranian fatwa for over 30 years.

“At the time of writing, we do not know the motives of the criminal who attacked Salman Rushdie with a knife. Was he rebelling against global warming, against a decrease in purchasing power, or against a ban on watering pots because of the heat? writes Rees, editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo and one of the few survivors of the 2015 attack. place on the website of the newspaper.

“So let’s venture to say that this is probably a believer who is also very likely a Muslim and did what he did, even more likely, in the name of the fatwa issued in 1989 by Ayatollah Khomeini against Salman Rushdie, which condemned him. to death.”

“Freedom of thought, reflection and expression is of no value to God and his servants. And in Islam, whose history has often been written by violence and submission, these values ​​simply have no place, because they represent so many threats to its influence, ”says Rees.

The cartoonist dismisses the idea that “the fatwa against Salman Rushdie was all the more outrageous because what he wrote in his book The Satanic Verses was not at all disrespectful of Islam.”

In January 2015, Charlie Hebdo was the victim of an Islamist attack that killed 12 people, including cartoonists. Charb, Kabu and Wolinskyafter they published sketches of the Prophet Muhammad.

The attack caused a global sensation and Salman Rushdie then expressed his “solidarity with Charlie Hebdo”.

“I hoped that by no longer hiding, as he decided in 2002, Salman Rushdie would live a normal life again. “Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to live like everyone else when you are covered by a fatwa,” Reese said in an interview with the newspaper. Magazine du dimanche (ZhD).

Rees, who still lives under the threat of Islamists, believes that “one must always remember that an attack is possible and always think that it can happen again.”

“For such people, years don’t count. They force us to consider their religious madness, to understand it in order to better predict. This is where the fatwa comes in: it drives us into their religion-blocked minds,” he stresses.