UK Today News: British Indian novelist and essayist Salman Rushdie announced on January 20, 2012 that he will not be attending the upcoming Literature Festival which is due to be held in Jaipur, India. On January 19, 2012, the officials warned that professional assassins would be on their way to kill Rushdie.
Salman was due to appear along with some of the leading authors like Sir David Hare, Tom Stoppard, Annie Proulx and Michael Ondaatje in spite of the threats received from some of the influential Muslim fundamentalists. The leaders of the Darul Uloom Deonband seminary earlier demanded a ban for Salman to stop him to enter the country.
The author is protested for his controversial novel ‘The Satanic Verses’ and Muslim leaders claimed that the author can never be forgiven for his blasphemous remarks on the Holy Koran of the Muslims.
While talking about his absence at the festival, the novelist wrote on Twitter, “Very sad not to be at jaipur. I was told bombay mafia don issued weapons to 2 hitmen to ‘eliminate’ me. Will do video link instead. Damn.” Rushdie also said that he received hate tweets from Muslims through the social networking site and called it as pathetic. The Muslim world was provoked with anger due to The Satanic Verses.
