J.K. Rowling gets death threat by person who hailed Rushdie’s stabbing
In reply to Harry Potter writer’s post on stabbing of author, Pakistani Twitter user says: ‘Don’t worry you are next’; he previously wrote about his desire to destroy Israel
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling received a death threat from a Twitter user on Saturday who lauded the stabbing of fellow author Salman Rushdie.
Rowling had posted on Friday night about Rushdie’s stabbing, saying the incident was “Horrifying news. Feeling very sick right now. Let him be ok.”
She later shared a screenshot of a reply by Meer Asif Aziz, who described himself as a Pakistani “student, social activist, political activist and research activist.”
Aziz responded to her post saying the stabber, Hadi Matar, was a “revolutionary Shia fighter.” He went on to threaten Rowling, saying: “Don’t worry you are next.”
In Saturday’s post, Rowling asked Twitter for “some support.” Aziz’s account appeared to have been disabled in the following hours.
Rowling added that police were involved in the recent threat, along with others.
.@TwitterSupport any chance of some support? pic.twitter.com/AoeCzmTKaU
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) August 13, 2022
According to an archive of his account, Aziz previously tweeted about his desire to destroy Israel and branded the Jewish state, Ukraine, and India as “terrorist states.”
He also appeared to be a supporter of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “Dear leader your struggle for Islamic world will not be wasted until we young generation are with you,” Aziz wrote in a reply to a Khamenei tweet.
There was no immediate comment from Twitter on the incident.
Rushdie was in serious condition and on a ventilator following the stabbing attack at a literary event in New York state Friday.
He had been living under an effective death sentence since 1989 when Iran’s then-supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a religious decree, or fatwa, ordering Muslims to kill the writer.
While Khomeini’s original fatwa has ceased to be a part of daily discourse in Iran for some time, the clerical leadership under his successor Khamenei did nothing to indicate it no longer stood and, on occasion, underlined the decree was still valid.
Matar was charged with attempted murder and assault, prosecutors said on Saturday.
