| Show Obituaries Classifieds Standard-Examine- r Sunday February 26 1939 upwww rauj&astK it a m' ’rtT 4 ?VV 'C ' ''1 IS’'! i C'! - M i uiufii's qai I r x Si 1 's m h II x ? — S - Ma f I v v ns r - ' r f " ' I 1 & 5'sfs i EUinlUi Death MON RHSHDIS r) t i It Y h Alt 0 ( ? f iNlRIlECTUAi? ffi il ITT ± rf New Yorkers marched outside a Barnes & Noble Bookstore Wednesday to protest a decision to remove book from shelves Khomeini using novel to halt moderate trends Iran (AP) — By Salman Rushdie to blaspheming Islam Ruhollah Khomeini has acted decisively to put the brakes on moderate trends in Iran A decade after Khomeini led the Islamic revolution to power in Iran many of the country’s senior figures are seeking greater freedom and an end to Iran’s political and economic isolation Factions also are jockeying for power trying to position themselves to take over after Khomeini leaves the scene But the frail ayatollah seized on the unlikely issue of Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses” to reassert his primacy over the secular and liberal forces gathering momentum in Iran His thunderbolt shocked many in the West The decree that an author in the late 20th century be put to death for a work of fiction reverberated from European foreign ministries to Fifth Avenue bookstores that stocked the novel Diplomatic envoys were recalled and writers marched in New York and signed protests in Europe A price of more than $5 million was put on Rushdie’s head by two Iranian clerics The author fled to a safe hiding place and issued an apology for sections of the book that could be considered TEHRAN blasphemy of the prophet Mohammed A stern and unforgiving Khomeini rejected any apology and renewed his call for Rushdie’s blood He also denounced his own domestic foes “As long as I am alive I will not let the state fall into the hands of liberals” Khomeini vowed in a statement Wednesday The ayatollah chose the issue and the timing of his assault Controversy simmered over “The Satanic Verses” for months In October the book was banned in India the country of Rushdie’s birth Demonstrations were staged against the novel in other countries On Feb 12 six people were killed in Pakistan during a protest over publication of the book in the United States Two days later Khomeini issued his condemnation On the face of it Khomeini’s statement dramatically pointed to a sharp swing back to revolutionary radicalism Six months after an Aug 20 cease-fir- e halted the war with Iraq the Iranian leadership is openly split Khomeini sides with hardliners who oppose demands for reforms in the country’s political social and religious life How far he will push that course is anyone’s guess Khomeini in the past has used extremism and allegations of See IRAN on 2F Associated About 500 people demonstrated in Bonn West Germany Saturday against the Khomeini regime in Iran and its call for the death of British author Salman Rushdie Posters read ‘The only way to peace and freedom in Iran: Overthrow the Khomregime’ ‘Shut out the Khomeini regime from the UN’ and ‘National Liberation Army: The army of peace and freedom’ eini 1— Author Salman Rushdie: ‘One of nature’s outsiders’ Associated Press Rushdie whose novel Satanic Verses” religious leaders to his death for allegedly blaspheming Islam was born a Moslem in Bombay India on June 19 1947 Tall and slender his black hair thinning above a bespectacled face he seems to wear a permanently serious expression His late father was a wealthy businessman who sent him at age 13 to the prestigious Rugby school in England Rushdie won a scholarship to Cambridge University studying history and developing an interest in the life of Is- Salman fine-featur- lam's founder Mohammed the Prophet From Cambridge he joined his parents in Moslem Pakistan working in the country’s fledgling TV serviee He said the political and religious prejudice he encountered made him return to England He eked out a living writing advertis ing copy and two TV films His first novel “Grimus” in 1975 drew no critical attention His second "Midnight’s Children” in 1981 a tale of those born at the moment of India’s independence in 1947 made his name and won the Booker Prize and the coveted James Tait Black Memorial Prize “Shame” his third novel in 1983 treated Pakistan's politics as myth and was not popular although it won a prize in France Then followed a Nicaragua travel book "The Jaguar Smile” in 1987 and last September “The Satanic Verses” which won the Whitbread Prize for a new novel H V--1 Philip Howard literary editor of The Times of London described Rushdie as the “stormy petrel wayward genius of our younger novelists very clever in his p and poetic prose egotistical prickly and political very keen on money for a professed socialist: one of nature’s outsiders” over-the-to- self-indulge-nt A- - ' M I C r s $11 N V Press At left Indian-bor- n shown in his London study 31 is reportedly in Rushdie on Jan hiding after Khomeini put a $5 million bounty on his head Above a notice is placed in a London bookstore window that all copies of his controversial book were sold out |
