Reuters North American News Service, January 17th, 2008
MUMBAI, Jan 17 (Reuters) - A powerful Islamic group in
India is asking Muslims to boycott products of a top Indian
business group if its owner does not apologise for hosting
author Salman Rushdie on a brief holiday this week.
Rushdie stayed at the plush bungalow of the Godrej family
while visiting India's biggest city where he was born and spent
many of his early years.
A personal friend of the Godrejs, who have a variety of
businesses from home appliances and IT to food products and
pesticides, Rushdie's visit was well publicised in the Indian
media.
But the guest of Godrejs has angered the All-India Ulema
Council -- a national grouping of Muslim organisations -- which
says the family had not cared for the sentiments of Muslims
whom Rushdie had offended with his writings.
"We really hope Mr. Godrej realises the hurt he has caused
us and says sorry for it," Maulana Mehmood Daryabadi, a council
official, said. "Otherwise, we are asking Muslims all over to
boycott his company's products."
The Godrejs were not available for comment. Godrej
Industries Ltd <GODI.BO>, a Godrej group company with interests
in chemical, vegetable oil and real estate, posted a net profit
of $15.94 million in 2006-07.
The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's supreme
religious leader, pronounced a fatwa, or religious edict, in
1989 that called on Muslims to kill Rushdie because of
perceived blasphemy in his fourth novel, "The Satanic Verses".
This forced the writer to live in hiding for nine years.
In June he was selected for a knighthood by Britain's Queen
Elizabeth, again angering some Muslims in Iran and Pakistan.
The presence in India of another controversial writer,
exiled Bangladeshi Taslima Nasreen, has sparked riots by
Muslims offended by her books.
Threats against her have forced authorities to house her in
a secret security facility in New Delhi since November, and she
has appealed for more freedom.
(Reporting by Krittivas Mukherjee; editing by Alistair
Scrutton)
