Bounty of 80,000 pounds on Rushdie's head

Never possibly has a knighthood provoked such controversy. After Salman Rushdie was knighted a bounty of 80 000 pounds has been placed on his head by an Iranian group.

This has prompted the authorities to review the security of the controversial India-born author.

The Scotland Yard is reviewing security around Rushdie, who turned 60 on Wednesday, and is all set to get round the clock police protection.

The bounty was offered by the Tehran-based hardliners 'The Organisation To Commemorate The Martyrs Of The Muslim World'.

It said it would pay an 80,000 pounds reward for anyone 'who was able to execute the apostate Salman Rushdie'.

However, Buckingham palace has refused to comment on the growing protests over the decision to award Salman Rushdie.

On Tuesday, Pakistan even summoned the British High Commissioner to register protest at a diplomatic level and on Wednesday Iran followed.

But the High Commissioner Robert Brinkley told Pakistan that nothing could justify threats of suicide attacks.

Fatwa against Rushdie

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 Satanic Verses allegedly insulted Islam.

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

The Muslim Council of Britain, the main umbrella organization for Islamic groups in the country, has condemned the knighthood as provocation but urged restraint from ordinary Muslims.

However, the newspapers in Britain have come out in support of Rushdie.

''Incautious or not, no government can allow anticipated hostility to dictate its actions on something as parochial as honours, or as broad as foreign policy.''

''As a cultural figure, Salman Rushdie may or may not deserve his knighthood but we would defend the government's right to honor him and Rushdie's right to accept,'' said the Independent.

The far more conservative Daily Mail has been quoted as saying that ''while it did not like Rushdie's turgid prose, the inflammatory behaviour of the Pakistanis and Iranians is indefensible.''