Satanic Verses

A MAN'S spiritual choices are a matter of conscience, arrived at after deep reflection and in the privacy of his heart. They are not easy matters to speak of publicly.I should like, however, to say something about my decision to affirm the two central tenets of Islam -- the oneness of God and the genuineness of the prophecy of the Prophet Muhammad -- and thus to enter into the body of Islam after a lifetime spent outside it.Although I come from a Muslim family, I was never brought up as a believer and was raised in an atmosphere of what is broadly known as secular humanism.

Feb. 14 1895: Oscar Wilde's final play, The Importance of Being Earnest, opened at the St. James's Theatre in London. 1920: The League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago. 1989: Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.

LONDON -- Salman Rushdie, still under Islamic death threat for writing "The Satanic Verses," carried his appeal against the sentence yesterday to the Iranians who imposed it.In a broadcast on the Persian service of the BBC's World Service, he said: "You know I have never been the enemy of Islam. I have never been this figure with horns and a tail. I am not the sort of person who would have written a book attacking Islam."He said his book had been "much misunderstood." He asserted that his book was not blasphemous and said all the "so-called insults" were "contained in the dreams of a man who was going mad, and the reason he was going mad was because he had lost his faith in Islam."

NEW DELHI, India -- Salman Rushdie has been granted a visa to return to India, his native land, whose banning of his novel "The Satanic Verses" began a chain of events that led to death threats by offended Muslims and a life in hiding for a writer with a price on his head.The decision was confirmed yesterday by a spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs and prompted immediate threats of violent demonstrations. "We will protest within a constitutional framework, but I warn the government of India that a righteous follower of the Holy Prophet may make an attempt on Rushdie's life, and each Muslim will be proud of this person," said Syed Ahmad Bukhari, deputy priest of Jama Masjid, the best-known mosque in new Delhi.

NEW DELHI, India -- Salman Rushdie has been granted a visa to return to India, his native land, whose banning of his novel "The Satanic Verses" began a chain of events that led to death threats by offended Muslims and a life in hiding for a writer with a price on his head.The decision was confirmed yesterday by a spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs and prompted immediate threats of violent demonstrations. "We will protest within a constitutional framework, but I warn the government of India that a righteous follower of the Holy Prophet may make an attempt on Rushdie's life, and each Muslim will be proud of this person," said Syed Ahmad Bukhari, deputy priest of Jama Masjid, the best-known mosque in new Delhi.

Feb. 14 1895: Oscar Wilde's final play, The Importance of Being Earnest, opened at the St. James's Theatre in London. 1920: The League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago. 1989: Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.

After a run of 16 straight weeks, Alexandra Ripley's "Scarlett" will drop from the top of Sunday's New York Times best-seller list. The new No. 1 will be "Hideaway" by Dean R. Koontz.Also, the long-delayed paperback version of Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" is scheduled to be out in the spring.

Salman Rushdie, the author of "The Satanic Verses," who has lived in hiding for nearly a decade as the object of an open-ended Islamic death sentence, was married in secret on Thursday in the Hamptons on Long Island.The details of the wedding were not given, but Andrew Wylie, Rushdie's agent, said yesterday, "Elizabeth and Salman Rushdie are happy to confirm that they were married on Thursday, Aug. 28, in a small ceremony."Newspaper reporters in London, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the new Mrs. Rushdie, whose maiden name is being withheld to protect her safety, is a poet who had collaborated with Rushdie on an anthology of modern Indian writing.

LONDON -- Author Salman Rushdie, in his first television interview since going into hiding 18 months ago, says he is sorry for any hurt his novel "The Satanic Verses" may have caused."

LONDON -- Author Salman Rushdie embraced Islam yesterday and said that his book "The Satanic Verses" would not be published in paperback and that he did not personally agree with some statements in the book that most offend Moslems.Mr. Rushdie, 43, issued the statement in an attempt to get Iran and fundamentalist Moslems to lift the death sentence under which he has lived for 22 months. But fundamentalist British Moslem leaders said that it wasn't enough and that nothing short of withdrawal of the book from stores would remove the sentence pronounced by the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Salman Rushdie, the author of "The Satanic Verses," who has lived in hiding for nearly a decade as the object of an open-ended Islamic death sentence, was married in secret on Thursday in the Hamptons on Long Island.The details of the wedding were not given, but Andrew Wylie, Rushdie's agent, said yesterday, "Elizabeth and Salman Rushdie are happy to confirm that they were married on Thursday, Aug. 28, in a small ceremony."Newspaper reporters in London, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the new Mrs. Rushdie, whose maiden name is being withheld to protect her safety, is a poet who had collaborated with Rushdie on an anthology of modern Indian writing.

If you have not read Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses," you probably should. It is at least a near-great novel - great in my judgment. It is also today's most exemplary evidence of the cost and the burdens of free expression in a civilized society.It is, as all great work is, both playful and intense. A major element of its metaphor mocks -quite respectfully, almost fondly, to my eye and ear - some of the miraculous material of the Muslim faith. It is about as rude about Islam as, say, H.L. Mencken was on Presbyterianism - but not nearly so tough as Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" was on Massachusetts Puritanism.

Despite his recent series of public -- determinedly public -- appearances, Indian-born British novelist Salman Rushdie must realize that danger stalks him still. He is rightly suspicious of what he calls the "charm offensive" by Iranian officials who say their government no longer intends to carry out the fatwa issued against Mr. Rushdie seven years ago by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. (That death sentence, accompanied by a $1 million bounty, was handed down for the alleged slanders of Islam in the novel, "The Satanic Verses."

LONDON -- He has been on the run for six years, hiding under armed guard in a network of safe houses.Now, with old passions fading and a new book to sell, British author Salman Rushdie is ending the seclusion imposed by a zealot's death sentence.As a survivor, he is sadly wiser in the ways of the world, Mr. Rushdie says, but no less disposed to speak his mind."One of the things a writer is for is REUTERSSalman Rushdieto say the unsayable, to speak the unspeakable, to ask difficult questions," he said a week ago at his first announced appearance in public since being sentenced to death by Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 for alleged blasphemy against Islam.

One of my prized mementos from a career in journalism is a Viking Penguin press kit dated January 10, 1989.The cover letter and the accompanying bio of the Viking Penguin author in question breathlessly recounted the controversial history of the writer and his works:His second novel, published in 1981, so angered Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi that she sued! His third novel, from 1983, was censored in Pakistan! His latest novel was banned in October 1988 by the Indian government for the book's alleged offense to Islam!

Norway deserves the support of all nations in its quarrel with Iran, which concerns the right of Iranian authorities to order the murder of someone in Norway or anywhere outside Iran.Iran has no such right. For it to act as if it did violates international law, Norwegian sovereignty, common decency and respect for humanity. Politics is no excuse. Neither is religious devotion.The incident flows from the fatwa, or decree, by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual leader of Iran, in 1989, calling on believers to kill the Indian-born British writer, Salman Rushdie, for blasphemy in his novel, "The Satanic Verses."

Norway deserves the support of all nations in its quarrel with Iran, which concerns the right of Iranian authorities to order the murder of someone in Norway or anywhere outside Iran.Iran has no such right. For it to act as if it did violates international law, Norwegian sovereignty, common decency and respect for humanity. Politics is no excuse. Neither is religious devotion.The incident flows from the fatwa, or decree, by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual leader of Iran, in 1989, calling on believers to kill the Indian-born British writer, Salman Rushdie, for blasphemy in his novel, "The Satanic Verses."

In assessing President Clinton's meeting with the author Salman Rushdie, two points have to be kept very clear and separate: Everything the United States stands for must repudiate the right of the dictators of Iran to commission the murder of an Indian-born British subject who blasphemed Islam. But this is not endorsement of Mr. Rushdie's novel, "The Satanic Verses," which every reader is entitled to interpret individually, if able and willing to slog through it.In writing this large and convoluted tale, Mr. Rushdie was liberating himself from an Islamic heritage with the help of his English education, and also intending to shock.

In assessing President Clinton's meeting with the author Salman Rushdie, two points have to be kept very clear and separate: Everything the United States stands for must repudiate the right of the dictators of Iran to commission the murder of an Indian-born British subject who blasphemed Islam. But this is not endorsement of Mr. Rushdie's novel, "The Satanic Verses," which every reader is entitled to interpret individually, if able and willing to slog through it.In writing this large and convoluted tale, Mr. Rushdie was liberating himself from an Islamic heritage with the help of his English education, and also intending to shock.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton, responding to outrage in the Muslim world over his meeting with British author Salman Rushdie, says he intended no disrespect toward followers of Islam.Although aides insisted Mr. Clinton was not apologizing for receiving the author of "The Satanic Verses," a book deemed blasphemous by millions of Muslims, the president's remarks yesterday appeared designed to soften the impact of last Wednesday's brief meeting, which was controversial even within the administration.