Iran complains to British ambassador on Rushdie's knighthood

TEHRAN: Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned the British ambassador to complain over Britain's decision to grant a knighthood to controversial Indian-born author Salman Rushdie, who was accused of blasphemy by Iran's former supreme leader for his book "The Satanic Verses,".

In the meeting, Iranian Foreign Ministry official Ebrahim Rahimpour told Ambassador Jeffrey Adams that the decision was a "provocative act" that has angered Muslims.

Adams said Rushdie was being honoured for his works of literature and underlined that the British government respects Islam, the state Islamic Republic News Agency said.

In the last evening meeting, Adams promised to relay Tehran's protest to London.

Rushdie went into hiding after Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, ordering Muslims to kill the author because his novel "The Satanic Verses" allegedly insulted Islam.

The Iranian government declared in 1998 that it would not support but could not rescind the fatwa.

Britain announced Saturday that it would award Rushdie a knighthood, along with CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour, a KGB double agent and several others.