TEHRAN — Iran on Sunday condemned Britain's decision to grant a knighthood to the author Salman Rushdie, who was forced into hiding for a decade after the Islamic republic's spiritual leader ordered his assassination.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, said the decision to grant Britain's highest honor to Rushdie, who wrote the novel "The Satanic Verses," was an insult to the Muslim world.

Honoring Rushdie, one of "the most detested characters in the Islamic society, is obvious proof of anti-Islamism by ranking British officials," said Hosseini during his weekly press conference.

Rushdie went into hiding after Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, ordering Muslims to kill the author because his novel "The Satanic Verses" allegedly insulted Islam.