Muslim cleric welcomes Rushdie s decision

Lucknow/Jaipur, January 21 (ANI): Muslim cleric, Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahali has welcomed controversial author Salman Rushdie's decision not to visit India to attend the Jaipur Literary Festival. Rushdie issued a statement through the organisers of the festival, which kickstarted yesterday, saying that he will not be coming to the event due to security reasons. However, writers and authors appearing in the festival yesterday, including Tehelka s publisher Tarun Tejpal, The Hindu s editor Siddharth Varadrajan, Professor Amitava Kumar and others, publicly slammed the way in which Rushdie was forced to abandon his appearance in the fest.