Ata'ollah Mohajerani

Mohajerani left Iran and as of 2009 lives in England with his wife. They launched a website called www.maktoub.ir.

Of the books Mohajerani has written, most famous are a "learned critique" of the Salman Rushdie novel Satanic Verses, a book in support of Ferdowsi (and against attacks by Ahmad Shamlou), and a book on Zaynab bint Ali's role in and after Aashurah. He also wrote another book titled Gray heaven/paradise published in 2007.

In April 2000, however, he resigned due to heavy criticisms by the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, because of his "liberal" policies. He also served as the speaker of the cabinet during that time. He later became the president of the Iranian International Centre for Dialogue among Civilizations, but resigned from the post.

After Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie because of his novel The Satanic Verses, Mohajerani published a book called "Critique of the Satanic Verses Conspiracy" in 1989. Mohajarani quoted Khomeini's fatwa at the beginning of his book and approved and justified the fatwa. In 1995, Mohajerani wrote a short story gleefully satirising this British writer's fear of being attacked. Responding to Khomeini's Fatwa, on July 2, 1993, unknown assailants set fire to a hotel in the Turkish city of Sivas that was hosting a speech by Aziz Nesin, a renowned humorist who had translated the book into Turkish. A total of 35 people plus two perpetrators were killed in the blaze, and 145 people were injured. Mohajirani insisted that the massacre was a proud moment in what he called the glorious Islamic reawakening and wrote that Khomeini's fatwa had worked like a vaccine preventing further criticism of the prophet of Islam. So far, no proper study has been conducted into the role of Mohajerani and his book in promoting this massacre of intellectuals, translators and publishers worldwide.

Mohajerani's political career began in 1980 after the Iranian Revolution, when he won the first round of the parliamentary elections to become a representative of Shiraz and the youngest member of the majlis. Later, he became the Parliamentary Deputy to the Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, when he started to write the weekly column Naghd-e Haal in the Ettela'at newspaper, and then Vice President of Parliamentary Affairs under Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Sayyid Ata'ollah Mohajerani (Persian: سید عطاءالله مهاجرانی, also Romanized as Atā'ollāh Mohājerāni; born 24 July 1954) is an Iranian journalist, author, and reformist politician. Mohajerani served as Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance of Iran under President Mohammad Khatami from 1997 until 2000 when he was resigned from office for alleged permissiveness." He wrote a book about Salman Rushdie, and defends the Fatwa to kill him; he is living as a UK citizen.