Salman Rushdie claims victory in Facebook name battle

The author's full name is Ahmed Salman Rushdie

Author Salman Rushdie says he has won a battle with Facebook over what to call himself on his profile page on the social network.

Rushdie's dispute with Facebook began after he asked to be allowed to use his middle name Salman - the one he is known by across the world.

But Facebook, which has strict real name policies, had insisted on Ahmed - the novelist's first name.

Rushdie says Facebook has "buckled" after he began tweeting about the row.

"Victory! #Facebook has buckled! I'm Salman Rushdie again. I feel SO much better. An identity crisis at my age is no fun. Thank you Twitter!" wrote the British Indian author, who is known as SalmanRushdie on Twitter.

"Just received an apology from The #Facebook Team. All is sweetness and light."

'Twitterverse ridicule'

Rushdie, aged 64, told about his run-in with Facebook in a series of tweets.

He says the social site even deactivated his account over the weekend "saying they didn't believe I was me".

Rushdie recounts that he had to send a photo of his passport to Facebook, which led to the reactivation of his account - but only as "Ahmed Rushdie".

Angered by this, the writer then decided to turn to what he described as "ridicule by the Twitterverse" about the row.

"Dear #Facebook, forcing me to change my FB name from Salman to Ahmed Rushdie is like forcing J. Edgar to become John Hoover.

"Or, if F. Scott Fitzgerald was on #Facebook, would they force him to be Francis Fitzgerald? What about F. Murray Abraham?" he tweeted.

A number of Rushdie's followers retweeted his posts and shortly afterwards Facebook changed his account to Salman Rushdie.

Rushdie lived in hiding under police protection for many years after the fatwa issued in 1989 against him by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini over his novel The Satanic Verses.

It was regarded as blasphemous by many Muslims, who protested by burning the book in public.