WORLD : Comic Book Koran Condemned

PARIS — A colorful, easy-to-read version of the Koran in comic book form has won approval from some Islamic authorities, but one scholar has condemned it, calling the author “a new Salman Rushdie.”

“Si Le Coran M’Etait Conte” (“If the Koran Were Told to Me”) is geared to readers aged 12 to 16, said its author, Youssef Seddik.

The Koran is the sacred book of Islam. According to Islamic belief, it contains the words of God as revealed to the prophet Mohammed.

The comic books, which cost about $10 each, have been approved and even encouraged by some religious authorities such as the Ayatollah Mehdi Rouhani, spiritual leader of the Shiite Muslim community in Europe.

But Mohammed Faidallah, head of Islamic Jurisprudence at Kuwait University’s Islamic Studies faculty, was quoted today as saying the comic books could spark a furor like that over Rushdie’s novel, “The Satanic Verses.”