AUnlike in Iran, the assassination attempt on the writer Salman Rushdie triggered almost no reaction in large parts of the Arab world. Shortly after the attack, the Iranian newspaper “Kayhan” praised the assassin with the words: “Let’s kiss the hands of the one who ripped the throat of the enemy of God with a knife.” But the Arab media held back noticeably. In Egypt and Syria, the assassination was hardly mentioned in the predominantly state-controlled press. In the Gulf countries, the newspapers mostly published agency reports, with the exception of the “Arab News” published in Saudi Arabia, which used the news of Rushdie’s improving state of health to dig at the Iranian government. The news, the journalist wrote, gives hope and softens the attack “to a failed attempt by the extremist Iranian regime accused of promoting terrorism around the world.”
The reluctance of the Arab media is not surprising and is primarily intended to protect themselves. Public condemnation of the attack could quickly boomerang. “They don’t want to condemn the attack because it will raise a lot of questions at home about their own interpretation of blasphemy and because they don’t want to get in trouble with their conservative religious institutions,” said Ayman Mhanna, director of the SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom”, which has been working from Beirut for freedom of the press and freedom of expression in the Levant for years. “I think because it’s a very sensitive issue, it’s very important for them to stay away so people don’t remind them of their own crimes against free spirits and journalists.”