Hitoshi Igarashi
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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In 1991, Rushdie's Japanese translator, Hitoshi Igarashi, was stabbed to death in Tokyo. |
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Hitoshi Igarashi (June 1947 – 12 July 1991) was a Japanese scholar of Arabic and Persian literature and history and the Japanese translator of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses.
Death
After Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989, calling for the death of "the author of the Satanic Verses book, which is against Islam, the Prophet and the Qur'an" and in March 1991 (3 months before Igarashi's death) issued a further fatwa and multimillion-dollar bounty for the death of "any of those involved in its publication who are aware of its content". Igarashi was stabbed repeatedly in the face and arms by an unknown assailant and died. His body was found on 12 July 1991 in his office at the University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
In 2006, the case was closed without having determined any individual suspects. Kenneth M. Pollack alleged in The Persian Puzzle that the attack was a covert operation by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. In 2010, Bungeishunjū reported a rumor circulating among the Japanese immigration authority that a young and wealthy Bangladeshi committed the murder then flew back to his home country the next day, before it was discovered. According to the unverified rumor, the Japanese government has refrained from applying for the extradition of the suspect from Bangladesh due to fears of inflaming anger over the Satanic Verses controversy.
