The Hindu : International : Britain plays down "fatwa'' remarks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 21, 2005

International

International

Britain plays down "fatwa'' remarks

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, JAN. 20. The British Government on Thursday played down reported remarks of the Iranian spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, seen as "reaffirming'' the fatwa against Salman Rushdie who faced worldwide Muslim protests over his novel Satanic Verses 15 years ago. Mr. Rushdie, though a British citizen, lives in New York with his wife Padma Lakshmi.

Mr. Khameini reportedly made the comments in the course of an attack on "Western and Zionists capitalists'' while addressing Haj pilgrims in Teheran. He said: "They talk about respect towards all religions, but they support such a mahdour al-damn mortad (an apostate whose blood could be shed) as Salman Rushdie.''

Even as the media here sought to interpret it as a "reaffirmation'' of the fatwa, first issued by the late Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989, and The Times called it a "new threat'' to Mr. Rushdie in a front-page splash, the Foreign Office reacted cautiously pointing out that it had not come from the Iranian government.

A spokesman told The Hindu that the crucial thing was that that the Iranian government formally withdrew it support to the fatwa in 1998. "That is the basis of our relationship with Iran,'' he said dismissing Mr Khameini's remarks as standard anti-western "rhetoric'' from a religious leader.

"There is nothing new in it... and nothing to get excited about,'' he said.

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