Imran Khan, the Pakistan cricketer-turned-politician, has pulled out of a conference in Delhi because of the expected attendance of Salman Rushdie.
An aide to Khan told the Guardian the 59-year-old, who leads a conservative political party currently riding a wave of mass support in his home country, learned of Rushdie's invitation to the India Today Conclave only on Tuesday evening, and made an immediate decision.
Shireen Mazari, who advises Khan on foreign affairs, said: "He categorically rejected participating in any programme that included Salman Rushdie, who has caused immeasurable hurt to Muslims across the globe."
In January, Rushdie was forced to pull out of the Jaipur literary festival, the biggest such event in south Asia, after protests by Indian Muslim groups, which consider his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses blasphemous. Full story...
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An aide to Khan told the Guardian the 59-year-old, who leads a conservative political party currently riding a wave of mass support in his home country, learned of Rushdie's invitation to the India Today Conclave only on Tuesday evening, and made an immediate decision.
Shireen Mazari, who advises Khan on foreign affairs, said: "He categorically rejected participating in any programme that included Salman Rushdie, who has caused immeasurable hurt to Muslims across the globe."
In January, Rushdie was forced to pull out of the Jaipur literary festival, the biggest such event in south Asia, after protests by Indian Muslim groups, which consider his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses blasphemous. Full story...
Related posts:
- Mob in Jaipur stops Salman Rushdie talk: organisers get death threats...
- Salman Rushdie persuaded to stay away from Jaipur Literature Festival...
- A tsunami of promises by Imran Khan in Karachi. Can he deliver?
- Salman Rushdie: Pakistan should be declared a terrorist state...
- From Satanic Verses to Sir Salman Rushdie...
- Pakistan: Punjab governor killed for 'opposing blasphemy laws'
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