In India an influential Islamic seminary demanded that Salman Rashdie should be banned from entering the country to attend a literature festival later this month, but British author Salman Rushdie has dismissed their demand.
Along with his fellow writers such as Lionel Shriver and Richard Dawkins, Rushdieis due to speak in the city of Jaipur . He was threatened with death in a “fatwa” order from Iran over his 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses”.
However the world’s most important Islamic universities The Darululoom Deoband seminary has been accused in the media of inspiring radical Islamic groups such as the Taliban.
Calling Indian govt. for cancelling Rushdie’s Visa, Maulana Qasim Nomani, a seminary official said, ” The man whose blasphemous writings have hurt the sentiments of Muslims all over the world must not be allowed to set foot on Indian soil.”
Responding on seminary’s demand, Rushdie posted on Twitter that he was born in Mumbai in 1947 and did not need a visa to visit India.
While Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the fatwa in 1989 calling for his death for alleged blasphemy against Islam in “The Satanic Verses”, Rushdie spent a decade in hiding.
Over the last 20 years his arrival in India that restricted by seminary which is located in Uttar Pradesh, accused it to linking the issue to state elections in Uttar Pradesh that begin on February 8.
Gulam Mohammed Vastanvi , the new rector who had controversy over reforms with seminary’s traditionalists, said he was sacked six months into his job for trying to modernise the curriculum, which is based on a 17th-century syllabus that focuses on Islamic law and spirituality.
Although the decision of Rushdie’s visit is based on organization of Jaipur and it supporting his arrival by saying, “Rushdie has attended literary events in India without incident in recent years, and is still scheduled to speak on January 20 and 21.”
