Mohammad Khatami denied his role in Salman Rushdie's apostasy fatwa

Mohammad Ali Abtahi wrote in a note:

In a news report, BBC World has claimed that Mr. Khatami, under the influence of a Pakistani personality, brought the news of Salman Rushdie's insult to the Prophet to the imam at the Tehran airport, and the imam gave his famous fatwa.

I was surprised by this news because at that time Mr. Khatami was the international deputy of the Ministry of Guidance, and Mr. Khatami was his minister, and his deputy was following up on international issues, and I was in the details of the news. I knew this news was a lie. Out of caution, I also talked to Mr. Khatami himself. He denied it firmly.

You know that I always write my memories. In the memories of those years, I saw for the first time in 1978 that Mr. Mohtashmi - the then Minister of the Interior - informed us of the publication of the book in the International Guidance Department. He said that there have been protests and demonstrations against the contents of the book in Pakistan and even people have been killed.

Pakistan's reaction practically showed that country as the leader of the story, and this was despite the fact that no voice had been raised from the Muslim world. Until the Imam's fatwa was issued regarding the reading of Salman Rushdie's Mahdur al-Dam.

Mr. Mohtashmi went to Imam's office the same evening that he gave us the news and conveyed the news to him. After the news reached the Imam's office, they immediately contacted us and ordered us to present a translated copy of the book by tomorrow night. The fatwa was published.

Mr. Mohtashmi used to say that although Pakistan started the demonstration and countries like Saudi Arabia also made a statement, but the fatwa of the Imam drew the whole Islamic world to follow him.