Salman Rushdie

Few can have lived through a more dramatic change in circumstances than Salman Rushdie. Now in line to receive a knighthood for services to literature, back in 1989 he sought police protection and went into hiding. He stayed there for more than nine years.
What put Mr Rushdie in fear for his life was the order issued by Ayatollah Khomeini that he and all those involved with the publication of The Satanic Verses be put to death. Parts of the novel - such as the parallels between one of the main characters, a shady, businessman-turned-prophet, and the prophet Mohammed - were judged to be blasphemous.

The ruling by Ayatollah Khomeini led one Islamic foundation to put a bounty on Mr Rushdie's head. Soon afterwards, Britain and Iran severed diplomatic relations. Fury was vented at Mr Rushdie from outside Iran too. Several people died during protests by Muslims in the Indian city of Mumbai, and there were demonstrations in parts of Kashmir. Closer to home, there were angry protests and even death threats from some British Muslims.

Mr Rushdie was moved from one safe house to another thirty times. The threat to his life only subsided in 1998, when a new, reformist government took power in Iran and gave assurances that it no longer wished him any harm. But the fatwa has never formally been rescinded.

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