Iran Condemns Britain for Knighting Rushdie
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran said Britain’s decision to give a knighthood to novelist Salman Rushdie, condemned to death by the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, is a sign of the nation’s “hostility toward Islam.”
Mr. Rushdie, author of “The Satanic Verses,” is “one of the most hated persons within the Islamic world” and honoring him will put Britain “at odds with Islamic societies,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in comments yesterday reported by the state-run Fars news agency.
The 59-year-old novelist spent nine years in hiding after being condemned to death by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 for blasphemy. The Indian-born writer lived under guard in 30 different locations around Britain.
Mr. Rushdie will be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, the British government said yesterday. ‘Sir Salman,’ a related editorial, is on page 8.
