He said the video on YouTube "looks like the worst little clip ever made", but there could be no justification for responding with "mayhem and murder".[break]
An Iranian foundation has reportedly increased a bounty for the death of Rushdie to $3.3 million, saying that if he had previously been killed for blasphemy, the film currently enraging Muslims would never have been made.
Since 1989, the Indian-born author has been the target of a Iranian fatwa calling for his murder for allegedly blaspheming Islam and its Prophet Mohammed in his book "The Satanic Verses".
In an interview with India´s NDTV television channel in London, posted on their website on Monday, Rushdie said the anti-Islam video was "clearly a very highly manipulative incident".
"But it´s more disgusting to attack and murder people who have nothing to do with it," he said, without referring to the bounty on his own head.
"This idea that somehow ´America´ is responsible for the deeds of every American is a stupid mistake, and in this case is a fatal mistake," he said.
The film, which mocks the Prophet Mohammed, is thought to have been produced by a small group of Christian extremists in the United States and has sparked violent anti-American protests across the Islamic world.
Iranian media quoted a statement from Hassan Sane´i, a cleric heading the 15 of Khordad Foundation, saying he was "adding another $500,000 to the reward for killing Rushdie".
Unless Rushdie is killed, "the movie offending the prophet will not be the last contemptuous attempt", the foundation´s statement was quoted as saying.
Rushdie told another Indian channel, CNN-IBN, that a "harsher, less tolerant Islam" had developed in his lifetime, with young people close to destitution attracted to the "jihad" to give them a sense of purpose.
Rushdie also slammed India, where "The Satanic Verses" is still banned, for being "thin skinned" and increasingly censorious of works of art.
The director of a new film of Rushdie´s novel "Midnight´s Children", set in India after independence, has said it may not be released in the author´s native country as "insecure politicians" had hindered the search for a distributor.
Rushdie pointed to the recent arrest of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, accused of sedition for his anti-corruption cartoons that lampooned the Indian government.
"There´s no such thing as a respectful political cartoon," Rushdie said.
Related story
Salman Rushdie attacker faces sentencing
_20220814065741.jpeg)
