World : Islamic Panel Won’t Doom Rushdie

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Islamic foreign ministers called today for “The Satanic Verses” to be withdrawn but refused to back Iran’s call for British author Salman Rushdie to be killed, delegates to a meeting here said.

They said the Islamic Conference Organization told member states to boycott Rushdie’s publishers if they failed to withdraw the book and urged the international community to pass laws protecting the beliefs of others. “This publication transgresses all norms of civility and decency and is a deliberate attempt to malign Islam and the venerated Islamic personality,” delegates quoted the organization’s final declaration on the book as saying.