Salman Rushdie is among a dozen
writers to have put their names to a statement in a French weekly paper warning
against Islamic "totalitarianism".
The writers say the violence sparked by the publication of
cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad shows the need to fight for secular
values and freedom.
The statement is published in Charlie Hebdo, one of several
European papers to reprint the caricatures.
The images, first published in Denmark, have angered Muslims
across the world.
One showed the Prophet Muhammad, whose depiction is banned in
Islam, as a terrorist bomber.
Many newspapers defended their decision to reprint the cartoons
on the grounds of freedom of expression.
'Global threat'
Almost all of those who have signed the statement have
experienced difficulties with Islamic militancy first-hand, says the BBC's
Caroline Wyatt in Paris.
They include Dutch MP and filmmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali and exiled
Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen.
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STATEMENT SIGNATORIES Salman Rushdie - Indian-born British writer with fatwa
issued ordering his execution for The Satanic Verses Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Somali-born Dutch MP Taslima Nasreen - exiled Bangladeshi writer, with fatwa
issued ordering her execution Bernard-Henri Levy - French philosopher Chahla Chafiq - Iranian writer exiled in France Caroline Fourest - French writer Irshad Manji - Ugandan refugee and writer living in
Canada Mehdi Mozaffari - Iranian academic exiled in Denmark Maryam Namazie - Iranian writer living in Britain Antoine Sfeir - director of French review examining
Middle East Ibn Warraq - US academic of Indian/Pakistani origin Philippe Val - director of Charlie Hebdo
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"After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new global threat: Islamism," the manifesto says.
"We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance
to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal
opportunity and secular values for all."
The clashes over the cartoons "revealed the necessity of
the struggle for these universal values," the statement continues.
"It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of
West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts
democrats and theocrats."
The writers said they refused to accept that Muslim men and
women "should be deprived of their rights to equality, liberty or
secularity in the name of respect for culture or tradition".
They also said they would not give up their critical spirit out
of fear of being accused of Islamophobia.
"Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality,
freedom and secularism wherever it is present," the writers added, saying
it is nurtured by fears and frustrations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4763520.stm