JAIPUR, India (AP) — The organizers of a literary festival in India say novelist Salman Rushdie has canceled his plans to attend after protests from Muslim clerics.
The festival circulated a statement Friday from Rushdie saying that he canceled his appearance after learning of rumors that assassins might be heading to the festival to kill him.
The British-Indian author's planned appearance at the Jaipur Literary Festival sparked an outcry among some Muslims who consider his 1988 book "The Satanic Versus" blasphemous.
Rushdie spent years in hiding after Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urged he be killed for blasphemy because of "The Satanic Verses." The book also was banned in India.
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