Rushdie pulls out of India festival

Booker-Prize winning author Salman Rushdie cancelled plans to appear at an Indian literature festival yesterday after protests from Muslim clerics and warnings that he could be targeted for assassination.

Rushdie’s planned appearance at the Jaipur Literary Festival had reawakened the long-dormant controversy over his 1988 book The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims consider blasphemous.He spent years in hiding after Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for his death for writing the book, which was also banned in India.

In recent weeks, the head of the influential Darul Uloom seminary urged the Indian government to bar Rushdie from the festival, and the chief minister of the state of Rajasthan said Rushdie should stay away because of security concerns.

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