British Muslim to Ask Iran to Abandon Rushdie Death Threat

A Muslim leader in Britain said Friday that he plans to go to 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, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian leader who died in June, called on 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 will cite the Koran, Islam’s holy book, to support his arguments that the death threat should be lifted.

A London newspaper, The Independent, Friday quoted Essawy as saying the Rushdie affair had harmed Britain’s 2 million Muslims by encouraging a backlash against them.