At Florida’s Nova Southeastern University, Islamic students are seething about the school’s choice of the dreaded blasphemer Salman Rushdie as a graduation speaker: Students object to Rushdie invitation.

DAVIE, Fla. - Some students at Nova Southeastern University say the school’s move to invite author Salman Rushdie to speak at graduation is an insult and they want campus officials to reconsider their choice.

A small group of concerned undergraduate students will meet with the private university’s leadership Thursday, although Nova is unlikely to replace the author, whose 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses” was accused of being blasphemous to Islam.

Graduating senior Farheen Parvez said she and her family would boycott the graduation ceremony, scheduled for May 7 in Sunrise, Fla. “I was looking forward to my graduation, of course,” said Parvez, a student leader and officer in the International Muslim Association at Nova. “Then when I found out that Salman Rushdie would be the speaker, I was appalled. …

Faculty suggested Rushdie as the keynote speaker because he fits well with Nova’s yearlong study of the theme of ”Good and Evil,“ Rosenblum said. …

”If he was here for any other event, that would have been fine, because that’s optional,“ said Parvez, a biology major. ”But having him at graduation, it’s not appropriate because that’s for the families and for the students.“

Besides concerns based on Rushdie’s writing, students also expressed worries over safety.

”Who is to say there is not someone willing to try and kill him while inflicting harm to everyone else at the ceremony?” said NSU student Randy Rodriguez-Torres in an editorial published in this week’s Nova student newspaper.