MSN India
Salman Rushdie 'feels sorry' for Pope
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Source: NDTV Image Source: AFP
London:Author Salman Rushdie has said he feels sorry for Pope Benedict after the Pope's recent comments on Islam sparked protests by Muslims around the world.
"I'm in the unusual position of feeling sorry for the Pope. It's a first for me. I just think people should calm down a bit," Rushdie said in an interview to The Times newspaper in London.
"This immediate, manufactured outrage that takes place is getting to be excessive," he said.
"Look at the things that are not being protested about. In Darfur [Sudan] you've got a Muslim massacre of other Muslims. Why aren't there demonstrations about that in the Muslim world?" Rushdie said in the interview.
In 1988, Salman Rushdie went into hiding after his novel Satanic Versus angered Muslims and Iran issued an edict, which called for his death.
India was the first country to ban Satanic Versus in 1988.