Iran condemned on Sunday the awarding of a knighthood to British author Salman Rushdie, whose novel The Satanic Verses prompted Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa death warrant for him.

In Queen Elizabeth’s birthday honours list, published on Saturday, Rushdie received a knighthood for services to literature.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman denounced it as an act directed against Islam by Britain, which is among world powers involved in an escalating standoff with Iran over Tehran’s disputed nuclear ambitions.

“Honouring and commending an apostate and hated figure will definitely put the British officials in (a position) of confrontation with Islamic societies,’’ the spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, said.

‘Fighting  Islam’

‘’Giving a badge to one of the most hated figures in Islamic society is basically an obvious example of fighting against Islam by high-ranking British officials,’’ Hosseini said.

The Islamic Republic formally distanced itself in 1998 from the original fatwa against Rushdie, issued by Khomeini who said the book committed blasphemy against Islam. Rushdie lived in hiding for nine years.

Irrevocable fatwas

But shortly after the Iranian government disavowed the death edict under a deal with Britain, Iranian media said three Iranian clerics called on Islamic followers to kill Rushdie, saying the fatwa was irrevocable and that it was the duty of Muslims to carry it out.