Forced to live under a death sentence a decade ago, Salman Rushdie has gradually emerged from hiding. Over the past year or so, the expatriate writer has met openly with friends, given interviews and delivered lectures in New York and his adopted city of London. He posed for a portrait by his favorite Indian painter, Bhupen Khakhar, and even jived on a London stage with the rock group U2 to promote his latest novel, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, due out in April. In September the Iranian government seemed to back away from the Ayatollah Khomeini's 1989 fatwa against Rushdie, saying it would no longer encourage Muslim faithful to kill the author of The Satanic Verses, the satirical novel that supposedly blasphemed Islam and Prophet Muhammad.

But one sign of forgiveness had eluded the 51-year-old Indian author: permission to visit his homeland. That gift finally came at the start of this month. A coveted five-year visa was stamped into his British passport by the Indian High Commission in London--just days before the 10th anniversary of the fatwa. "It feels like another step back into the light," the novelist told the New York Times. "I've got aunts and uncles and cousins and friends littered all over India."

Is it wise for Rushdie to go home again? His safety is far from assured. Whatever the attitude of the Iranian government, Islamic hard-liners in Tehran won't back off their threats against Rushdie's life. A powerful mullah-run foundation has raised the standing $2.5 million reward offered to his killer by an additional $300,000. And a journey to India, with its 120 million Muslims, could make him an easier target. Warned the English-language Tehran Times: "Providence may have destined this shameless character to meet his nemesis where he was born."

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