Iran has reportedly raised the reward for the death of Brit-Indian author Salman Rushdie by 500,000 dollars, and said if the writer had previously been killed for blasphemy, then the anti-Islam film that has sparked protests across the Middle East would never have been made.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini pronounced a fatwa sentencing the author to death in 1989 after declaring his novel, The Satanic Verses, “blasphemous”, but Iranian officials later indicated it would not be implemented.

Ayatollah Hassan Sanei, head of a powerful state foundation providing relief to the poor, said the film would never have been made if the order to execute Rushdie had been carried out.

“If the imam’s order was carried out, the further insults in the form of caricatures, articles and films would not have taken place,” the Telegraph quoted Sanei, as saying.

“The impertinence of the grudge-filled enemies of Islam, which is occurring under the flag of the Great Satan, America and the racist Zionists, can only be blocked by the absolute administration of this Islamic order,” he added.

Sanei further said that ‘the aim of the fatwa has been to uproot the anti-Islamic conspiracy and now the necessity for taking this action is even more obvious than any other time’.

“I’m adding another 500,000 dollars to the reward and anyone who carries out this order will immediately receive the whole amount,” he added.According to the paper, now the total bounty on the Booker Prize-winning author 3.3 million dollars.