Rushdie Denies Betrayal of Muslim Heritage

LONDON — Author Salman Rushdie, in hiding for almost a year after his novel “The Satanic Verses” drew Iranian death threats, says he has not betrayed his Islamic heritage.

“I am not the enemy of my own people,” he said in a telephone interview published in today’s Guardian newspaper. “I do not feel like the enemy of my people.”

Rushdie, 42, born to Muslim parents in India, declined to comment on his security situation but said, “You shouldn’t assume that I have very much freedom at all.”

He went into hiding in Britain last February after Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill him for blasphemy.

“One would wish the thing to come to an end,” he said. “But I’m not the maker of the problem. I think if some of the people who protested about the book took the trouble to read it, they would see that it is not unsympathetic to them.”

Rushdie said he has received many letters of support from Muslims.

Asked whether he plans to write a book about his present situation, Rushdie replied: “It’s not a question I can really begin to think about at the moment. In the future, who knows?”