Rushdie opens house for persecuted authors

MEXICO CITY, Jan 5: British author Salman Rushdie yesterday opened a safe house for persecuted writers in Mexico City, as part of the refuge cities programme of the International Parliament of Writers.

Mexico City is one of 32 towns around the world in the programme. Rushdie arrived in Mexico City with bodyguards. The British author is under a fatwa, or death threat, decreed in 1989 by Iran8217;s spiritual leader, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, for alleged blasphemy in his novel The Satanic Verses.

The fight against religious intolerance had been a worthwhile struggle, Rushdie said. Iran has stressed on several occasions in recent years that although the Khomeini decree is irrevocable, it will not execute the fatwa orders.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said on the sidelines of the recent 53rd United Nations General Assembly in New York that the Rushdie affair should be regarded as 8220;completely finished8221;.