Salman Rushdie Condemns Cancellation of Muhammad Novel

Rushdie, whose "The Satanic Verses" led to a death decree in 1989 from Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and forced the author to live for years under police protection, said the Random House Publishing Group had allowed itself to be intimidated.

"I am very disappointed to hear that my publishers, Random House, have canceled another author's novel, apparently because of their concerns about possible Islamic reprisals," Rushdie said Thursday in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "This is censorship by fear, and it sets a very bad precedent indeed."