Iran fatwa 'prologue' to ongoing anti-US protests: Salman Rushdie

Controversial Brit-Indian author Salman Rushdie has said that the fatwa against him was the 'prologue' to the current anti-American protests sweeping the Middle East.

Rushdie was forced to go into hiding after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his death in 1989 following the publication of his book The Satanic Verses.

"I always said that what happened to me was a prologue and there will be many, many more episodes like it," the Telegraph quoted him, as saying at the launch of his memoir, Joseph Anton.

"This is one of those," the Booker Prize-winning author added.

According to the paper, Rushdie did not defend the anti-Islam film currently enraging Muslims across the globe.

"The correct response would be to say it is garbage and unimportant," the paper quoted him, as saying.

"Clearly, it's a piece of crap, is very poorly done and is malevolent. To react to it with this kind of violence is just ludicrously inappropriate," he said.

"People are being attacked who had nothing to do with it and that is not right," he added.

A semi-official religious foundation in Iran has increased a reward it had offered for the killing of British author Salman Rushdie to $3.3 million from $2.8 million, a newspaper reported, days after protests coursed through the Muslim world over alleged insults to the Prophet Muhammad.

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