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Iranian President Mohammed Khatami has said that the blasphemy case against Indian-born British writer Salman Rushdie for his novel The Satanic Verses must be considered closed.
''We should consider the question of Salman Rushdie as finished and I hope this question, which has been raised for the last couple of years, will not be brought up again,'' the moderate president told the Persian daily Tose'eh.
He said, ''Iran has formally announced that it has no decision on the subject.''
''In our view, what happened in the Salman Rushdie saga was an expression of a cultural offensive initiated by the west against Islam and the Islamic revolution, towards which we took a defensive Position,'' the Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Khatami as telling the daily.
The Iranian president said his country was not against the freedom of thought and expression, but what Rushdie had done was ''an affront to Islamic sanctities'', which was unacceptable.
''Hundreds of books, opposing our beliefs and programmes, are published around the world, many of which are published and even translated inside Iran... However, we should define freedom of thought. We do not consider insults and abuses to (religious) sanctities as having anything to do with thoughts,'' he added.
The late Iranian spiritual leader Ayatullah Khomeini had issued a ''fatwa'' against Rushdie in 1989, calling for his death for the allegedly blasphemous content of his controversial novel.
Incensed over the Iranian ''fatwa'', the United Kingdom had snapped ties with Iran; relations between the two countries resumed in 1991 and were upgraded in 1998, when Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi reassured British leaders that Iran would not get involved in carrying out the decree against Rushdie.
Khatami's statement came as he braces for a second term in Friday's presidential election in his country. His adoption of the detente policy has improved Iran's image around the world, helping the Islamic republic mend ties with many countries.
The Islamic Propagation Organisation had in February renewed the death sentence on Rushdie, ahead of the twelfth anniversary of the ''fatwa'' against the British writer.
''We ask world Muslims to carry out this divine edict and cleanse the world of such mercenary satans,'' the organisation had said in a statement.
Another foundation had in 1999 offered to add interest to its 2.8 million dollars bounty on Rushdie's head.
UNI
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