Apostasy in Islam taken place. Justifications offered for the alleged executions vary, but one of the most common theories advanced is that they were in retaliation for the 1988 attack on the western borders of Iran by the PMOI Mujahedin. However, this does not fully account for the targeting of other leftist groups who opposed the Mujahedin invasion. Salman Rushdie is a prominent contemporary figure accused of apostasy. In 1989 a fatwa was issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, the ruler of Iran at the time, calling for the death of Salman Rushdie for the blasphemy of authoring the book "The Satanic Verses". Hossein Soodmand,
Forty Hadith of Ruhullah Khomeini (guardianship); Love of the world. In 2009, the book was translated into French with the assistance of Iran's Cultural Center in Paris and the translation was published by the Institute for Compilation and Publication of Ayatollah Khomeini's Works. Four years later, the book was translated into Kurdish by Ali Husseini and published by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s cultural attaché in Turkey. It has also been translated into English and Urdu. Forty Hadith of Ruhullah Khomeini Forty Hadith () is a 1940 book written by Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It describes his personal interpretations