By IANS,
Tehran : Iran Wednesday said the fatwa to kill British-Indian author Salman Rushdie was still valid even after 20 years of its issuance, IRNA news agency reported.
The fatwa ordering the death of “apostate British writer Salman Rushdie is still valid”, said Hossein Sobhaninia, deputy head of Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.
Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had issued the death edict against Rushdie in 1989 for his controversial book “The Satanic Verses”, claiming the book insulted Islam.
The fatwa forced the Indian-born author, 61, to go into hiding for over a decade. Sobhaninia said: “Rushdie’s protection in so many years since issuance of the fatwa has cost westerners dearly.”
The writer has experienced “harshest period of time in his life in these years”, the Iranian leader said, adding that the death edict made many people understand that they should not insult others.
In 2007, Britain awarded Rushdie a knighthood for his contributions in the field of literature that angered Iran and it accused Britain of Islamophobia.