3,000 Protest Rushdie Book in Tehran : Author’s London Home Guarded Over Death Threats

About 3,000 people protested outside the British Embassy in Tehran today against author Salman Rushdie, some throwing stones that damaged the building, a member of the embassy staff said.

In London, police were guarding the premises of Rushdie’s publishers and his home after Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called Tuesday for Rushdie’s execution. But the author did not answer his telephone and it appeared he was not there. Newspapers reported that he had gone into hiding with police protection.

Iranian state television reported today that a senior Iranian cleric offered a $1-million reward today to any foreigner who killed Rushdie and about three times that amount to any Iranian who carried out the “holy crusade.” It quoted Hassan Sanei as saying his charity, the June Fifth Foundation, would pay the money to “anyone who would punish this mercenary of colonialism for his shameful act.”

Considered Blasphemous

Muslims in many nations have condemned as blasphemous “The Satanic Verses,” the new novel by Rushdie, who was born to a Muslim family in Bombay and now lives in London. At least seven people have died in protests against the book in Pakistan and India.

Speaking by telephone from the British Embassy, a staff member told Reuters, “Some stones were thrown and some minor damage was done. . . . The demonstrators are beginning to disperse now and things are looking quieter.”

A Foreign Office spokesman in London said police had kept the protesters away from the compound where seven British staff members work.

The Iranian leader today declared a day of mourning over the novel. Tehran Radio, monitored in Nicosia, Cyprus, said markets and theological schools were closed for the day.

Ready to Kill

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said today that they were ready to kill Rushdie, saying that “oppressed and Muslim nations” should not rest until the author and his publishers are exterminated, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

Tehran Radio reported that Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati told diplomats in Tehran that his government will order the closure of cultural centers belonging to nations that permit publication of the book.