Rushdie hasn't gone into hiding, says son

India-born controversial author Sir Salman Rushdie, knighted in the Queen's birthday honours, has not gone into hiding again, his son Zafar has said.

'We have taken extra security precautions, but he's going about his business in the normal way', Zafar told The Sunday Telegraph.

He said, 'The reaction to his knighthood has been very disappointing. I thought we were beyond all that'.

Rushdie first drew the wrath of the Islamic world following his controversial book The Satanic Verses (1988), which caused deep rumblings among many Muslims, prompting protests and book burnings and even riots in which several people died.

The furore reached new heights when late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's supreme leader, joined in proclaiming the book a work of blasphemy and condemning Rushdie to death for 'insulting Islam, the Prophet, and the Holy Koran'.

After death threats and a fatwa issued by Khomeini calling for his assassination, Rushdie spent years underground, appearing in public only sporadically.

The recent knighthood of Rushdie provoked anti-British sentiments across the Islamic fraternity with hardliners in Iran reviving calls for his murder.