the novel caused much controversy when it was published. many muslims felt that it contained blasphemous references. ayatollah ruhollah khomeini, the supreme leader of iran, a shi'a muslim scholar, issued a fatwa that called for the death of rushdie and claimed that it was the duty of every muslim to obey. as a result, hitoshi igarashi, the japanese language translator of the book was stabbed to death on 11 july 1991; ettore capriolo, the italian language translator, was seriously injured in a stabbing the same month. william nygaard, the publisher in norway, survived an attempted assassination in oslo in october 1993. on 14 february 2006, the iranian state news agency reported that the fatwa will remain in place permanently.