Muslim to Lecture Against Iran Threat to Kill Rushdie

A Muslim leader in Britain said today that he plans a lecture tour of the Middle East, including Iran, in a campaign to persuade that nation’s leaders to revoke their death threat against author Salman Rushdie.

“A price on his head is below the dignity of the Iranian government--it belongs to gangster movies and Westerns,” said Dr. Hesham Essawy, chairman of the Islamic Society for the Promotion of Religious Tolerance.

He said he plans to speak at universities and to the media in Egypt and the Persian Gulf states in February. If the Iranian government guarantees his safety, he said, he will visit there as well.

Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses” has offended many Muslims worldwide who say it blasphemes Islam.

On Feb. 14, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian leader who died in June, told Muslims to kill the author. Khomeini’s threat was backed by the offer of a $5.2-million bounty by two Iranian Muslim clergymen.

The 42-year-old writer, an Indian-born Briton, remains in hiding.

Essawy, a London dentist, said he would cite the Koran, Islam’s holy book, to support his arguments that the death threat should be lifted.

“The Koran has verses that actually fit the situation exactly: If unbelievers or hypocrites mock or insult the word of God, do not sit with them until they talk about something else,” he said.

“The Koran’s position is very tolerant but Khomeini said ‘Kill him,”’ El-Essawy said.

“I am just as incensed by Mr. Rushdie’s book as anybody else, but my reaction has to come within the confines and teachings of the Koran. I am hoping that people will come to their senses and the pressure will ease.”