The World : New Muslim Death Threat

Egyptian Nobel literary laureate Naguib Mahfouz said Islamic extremists have vowed to kill him for blasphemy in a threat similar to that made by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini against Salman Rushdie. “Police have offered me protection after Muslim extremists announced their intention to kill me,” Mahfouz told reporters. “I refused because police protection could disturb my life and disrupt my day-to-day habits.” Mahfouz, 77, sharply criticized Khomeini, Iran’s leader, when he urged Muslims to kill Rushdie, author of “The Satanic Verses.” Security sources said the order against Mahfouz was probably issued by Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind theologian who some Egyptian Muslim radicals in the outlawed Islamic Jihad group regard as their mentor.