A12 Bangladeshi police are hunting for a writer accused of blasphemy.

In 2001, an Emergency court sentenced Salaheddin Mohsen, a writer accused of blasphemy, to three years in prison with hard labor for writings deemed offensive to Islam.

He defended a journalist accused of leaking state secrets in Hunan Province and a writer accused of posting subversive materials on the Internet in Hubei Province.

He did not receive screen credit for some of his films because of the blacklist aimed at writers accused of being communists, according to his wife, Norma.

The Iranians have never rescinded the death order against Salman Rushdie, the writer accused of blasphemy.

Mr. Rushdie's is the most dramatic but not the only case of a prominent writer accused of blasphemy by Islamic authorities.

Having seen the rise of fascism in Europe, they were disturbed by witch-hunts against many writers and academics accused of communist sympathies.

On Friday, nearly 50,000 Muslims marched through Dhaka to demand tougher laws against blasphemy and the execution of Taslima Nasrin, a feminist writer accused of insulting Islam.