Egypt’s Top Police Official Labels Khomeini ‘a Pig’

Egypt’s top police official Friday called Iran’s spiritual leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, “a pig” and criticized his death decree against British author Salman Rushdie.

Interior Minister Zaki Badr made the comments to foreign journalists during a tour of a village west of Cairo where police and Muslim extremists clashed recently, resulting in the brief detention of 30 people.

Badr said he disagrees with Khomeini’s death decree against Rushdie, issued Feb. 14 because of the Indian-born author’s novel, “The Satanic Verses,” which Muslims consider blasphemous because of its parody of the Prophet Mohammed.

‘Face Him With Facts’

“You know that President Hosni Mubarak has said that of course it is wrong. This is not the system (method) to treat him. It is not the system to kill him or punish him for a book. It is not like so. Confront him by other means. Face him with facts, with opinions and so on,” Badr said, speaking in English.

Asked for his opinion of the Iranian spiritual leader, he said: “Khomeini is a dog. Pardon me, no, no, he is not a dog, he is a pig, for a dog is faithful.”

Muslims are strictly forbidden to eat pork and describing someone as a pig is considered deeply insulting.

Badr, who has been at the forefront of Egypt’s fight against Muslim extremism, said that Islam’s growing influence in Egypt does not reflect support for Khomeini.