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Iran said Tuesday that the fatwa, or religious edict, condemning British author Salman Rushdie to death over his novel "The Satanic Verses" will remain in force forever.
The announcement was made on the anniversary of the February 14, 1989 edict issued by the leader of Iran's Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and comes amid global Muslim outrage over cartoons denigrating the Prophet Mohammed.
"Imam Khomeini's fatwa on the apostate Salman Rushdie will remain in force for eternity," said the Martyrs Foundation, which has offered a 2.8 millon dollar bounty for Rushdie's head.
The novelist sparked fury from Muslims worldwide who burned his book because of alleged blasphemy and apostasy.
"I inform the proud Muslim people of the world that the author of the Satanic Verses book which is against Islam, the Prophet and the Koran, and all involved in its publication who were aware of its content, are sentenced to death," the ayatollah said in the fatwa.
Rushdie was born in Bombay, India in 1947, the son of a successful Muslim businessman. He was educated at England's Rugby School before attending Cambridge University.
His writing career began as an advertising copywriter in London.
It was his second novel, "Midnight's Children," which brought him popular and critical success. It won Britain's prestigious Booker Prize in 1981.
But it was "The Satanic Verses" that caused a furore. Set in contemporary England, and combining fantasy, philosophy and farce, it described a cosmic battle between good and evil. It was considered by many critics to be his greatest work.
In 1998, the then new government of reformist Iranian president Mohammad Khatami distanced itself from the fatwa.
"The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has no intention, nor is it going to take any action whatsoever to threaten the life of the author of 'The Satanic Verses' or anybody associated with his work, nor will it encourage or assist anybody to do so," foreign minister Kamal Kharazzi said at the time.
But only days later, three Iranian clerics called on Muslims to kill Rushdie, and the country's parliament reaffirmed the following month that the fatwas still stood.
Khatami was succeeded last summer by hardliner and arch-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, making it extremely unlikely that there would be any softening in the future.
Relations between Britain and Iran have frequently been strained, most recently by standoff between Tehran and the West over the Islamic republic's nuclear activities, and its accusations of British involvement in deadly bomb attacks in the southwest of the country last month.
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AFP 141533 GMT 02 06
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