Rushdie Tries to Cool Things Off

Salman Rushdie emerged from seclusion briefly to tape a TV interview in which he said he would like to go to a beach, lower the heat against him and try to reason with Muslims about threats on his life.

The author has been in hiding since February, 1989, when the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered Muslims to kill him for allegedly blaspheming Islam in his book “The Satanic Verses.”

Rushdie went to the BBC studios in West London for an interview on an arts program broadcast Monday night. Why Rushdie went to the studio instead of being interviewed at a “safe house” was not disclosed.

“I want to slowly begin to pinch back bits of my life and to continue to work as hard as I can to bring the temperature down,” he said.

“That involves talking to Muslim leaders to try and find a common ground, and it seems to me there is a lot of common ground but the point is to make it more solid.”

Asked what he would like to be doing in a few months, Rushdie said, “I would like to spend it on a beach, but I can’t see it happening. I am not looking too far ahead.”