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SALMAN Rushdie has confessed that he pretended to "embrace Islam" in the hope that it would reduce the threat of Muslims acting on the fatwa to kill him.The author issued a statement in 1990 to defuse the row about his novel The Satanic Verses, which had provoked Muslims across the world.[[[[[[He claimed he had renewed his Muslim faith, had repudiated the attacks on Islam in his novel and was committed to working for better understanding of the religion across the world.However, in an interview to be broadcast in England next month, Rushdie claims his reversion to the religion of his birth was all a "pretence".Speaking to psychotherapist Pamela Connolly in a forthcoming television episode of Shrink Rap, he says: "It was deranged thinking. I was more off-balance than I ever had been, but you can't imagine the pressure I was under."I simply thought I was making a statement of fellowship. As soon as I said it, I felt as if I had ripped my own tongue out."It became the moment I hit rock bottom."I realised that my only survival mechanism was my own integrity. People, my friends, were angry with me, and that was the reaction I cared about."Rushdie was born a Shia Muslim in Bombay but never considered himself religious.]]]]]]]The Satanic Verses, published in 1988 and considered blasphemous by many Muslims, was banned in India and burnt in demonstrations in Britain.In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini, then the Iranian leader, put a bounty on Rushdie's head and the author was forced into hiding.Rushdie, 60, claims the criticism of the book caused him more upset than the fatwa.http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23503771-401,00.html
As in the days of Noah....
