The World - News from March 24, 1989

Iran’s interior minister said that the execution order against British author Salman Rushdie will be carried out despite the efforts of what he described as “world colonial powers,” Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency said. Ali Akbar Mohtashemi met with the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who issued the order last month. “World colonial and arrogant powers should know the children of Islam will execute the divine ruling against deviated people, apostates and others trying to fight Islam,” Mohtashemi said. The death order was issued against Rushdie for his novel “The Satanic Verses,” which many Muslims see as blasphemous.