NEW DELHI, India: Several Indian Muslim organizations, including the Islamic Center of India, All India Sunni Board and the Ulema Council of India, sent a joint statement to the British High Commission in New Delhi condemning notorious novelist Salman Rushdie's knighthood.

They said the British government has offended Muslims all over the world by bestowing a knighthood on Rushdie.

"Salman Rushdie is a detested figure among Muslims. The British government has hurt Muslim feelings by honoring a person who is facing a fatwa for blasphemous writings," Maulana Abul Hasan of the Ulema council said.

In 1989, Iran's then-spiritual leader, the late Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa or religious edict ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie for his book, "The Satanic Verses," saying the work of fiction insulted Islam.

Meanwhile, Lucknow Muslims started signature campaign against Rushdie's knighthood.