DENMARK bowed to international pressure yesterday and invited the British writer, Salman Rushdie, to fly to Copenhagen to receive a European literary award.
The Danish authorities had originally cited security concerns for barring Mr Rushdie, who has faced a death threat from Iran over his novel, The Satanic Verses, for seven years.
They were worried about advance publicity over a planned awards ceremony and said police were too stretched by a Nordic biker gang war to offer sufficient protection.
Indian born Rushdie has lived in hiding and with permanent protection since 1989, when the Iranian revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, against him.
The Danish Culture Minister, Ms Jutte Hilden, has invited Mr Rushdie to come to Copenhagen before the new year to accept the award. She wrote to him saying that the government "regrets the award ceremony cannot take place as planned but must assure your that the decision was taken solely on security grounds. "I would like to invite you and personally present you with your prize in Copenhagen."
Ms Hilden's move came after the government came under heavy criticism for barring Mr Rushdie.
Mr Rushdie, welcoming the news in London, told BBC Television: "Security objections seem to have fizzled out. I'm very pleased."
"I gather there's been a lot of fuss in Denmark today, and a lot of people (have been) very annoyed about the government's decision. I'm delighted that they have so swiftly reversed their decision," he said.
Presentation of awards to Mr Rushdie, Austrian writer Christoph Ransmayer and Danish author and translator Thorkild Bjoernvig was originally to have made on November 14th in Copenhagen, which is this year's European Cultural Capital.
Iran says it is powerless to lift the fatwa, which can only be revoked by the man who issued it. However, Khomeini died in 1989.
The European Union has made headway on blunting the fatwa since France launched a diplomatic initiative almost two years ago when it held the EU's rotating presidency.
Tehran says it would not send anyone to kill Mr Rushdie. But European officials say this would probably be insufficient to solve the long running crisis without a further commitment to prevent others from doing so.
Mr Rushdie says the dialogue has not gone far enough. The EU, although it has been very determined orally to get agreements has put very few teeth into that process.
Mr Rushdie has always rejected Iran's charge of blasphemy against Islam.