The price on author Salman Rushdie's head has just jumped to $3.3 million, the AP reports.

The price was raised by the semi-official Iranian religious organization, 15 Khordad Foundation, local news reported on Sunday. The price had previously been $2.8 million.

The move apparently comes in light of the recent protests that have sprung up throughout the Islamic world over a YouTube trailer denigrating the prophet Muhammad.

The fatwa was originally issued by Iran's late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989, calling for the death of the author because his novel, "The Satanic Verses," was considered blasphemous. While the Iranian state no longer supports the Fatwa, it has never been rescinded.



Rushdie recently opened up to the New Yorker about what it's like to live under the threat of a fatwa.