London: Controversial Brit-Indian author Salman Rushdie has said that the fatwa against him was the ‘prologue’ to the current anti-American protests sweeping the Middle East.
Rushdie was forced to go into hiding after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his death in 1989 following the publication of his book The Satanic Verses. “I always said that what happened to me was a prologue and there will be many, many more episodes like it,” the Telegraph quoted him, as saying at the launch of his memoir, Joseph Anton. “This is one of those,” the Booker Prize-winning author added.
According to the paper, Rushdie did not defend the anti-Islam film currently enraging Muslims across the globe. “The correct response would be to say it is garbage and unimportant,” the paper quoted him, as saying. “Clearly, it’s a piece of crap, is very poorly done and is malevolent. To react to it with this kind of violence is just ludicrously inappropriate,” he said. “People are being attacked who had nothing to do with it and that is not right,” he added.
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.(ANI)
