Knighthood for Rushdie foments anger in Pakistan

[_DigitaLVampirE_]

ISLAMABAD: Lawmakers in Pakistan condemned Britain's award of a knighthood to the author Salman Rushdie as an affront to Muslim sentiments on Monday, and a cabinet minister said the honor provided a justification for suicide attacks.

"This is an occasion for the 1.5 billion Muslims to look at the seriousness of this decision," Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, religious affairs minister, said in Parliament. "The West is accusing Muslims of extremism and terrorism. If someone exploded a bomb on his body, he would be right to do so unless the British government apologizes and withdraws the 'sir' title."

One opposition member, Khwaja Asif, said the resolution, which passed unanimously in the lower house, exposed a contradiction in the government's policy as an ally of Britain in the U.S.-led global war on terrorism.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a religious edict before his death in 1989, ordering Muslims to kill the author on the ground that his book, "The Satanic Verses," insulted Islam. The threat forced Rushdie to live in hiding for a decade.

Britain broke diplomatic relations with Iran over the issue, restoring them in 1998 when Iran said it would not harm Rushdie. Iran condemned the knighthood for Rushdie on Sunday.

Robert Brinkley, Britain's ambassador to Pakistan, defended the decision to honor Rushdie, whose 13 books have won numerous awards, including the Booker Prize for "Midnight's Children" in 1981. "It is simply untrue to suggest that this in anyway is an insult to Islam or the Prophet Muhammad, and we have enormous respect for Islam as a religion and for its intellectual and cultural achievements," Brinkley said.

A Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Tasnim Aslam, said Rushdie's knighthood would hamper interfaith understanding and that Islamabad would protest to London.

"We deplore the decision of the British government to knight him," she said. "This we feel is insensitive, and we would convey our sentiments to the British government."

Britain announced the knighthood Saturday in an official celebration of the 81st birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. In the eastern city of Multan, hard-line Muslim students burned effigies of the queen and Rushdie. About 100 students carrying banners condemning the author also chanted, "Kill him! Kill him!"

The Associated Press|June 18, 2007

Pakistan Condemns Rushdie Knighthood

Pakistan says Rushdie knighthood justifies suicide bombings

[CastleStormer]

Originally Posted by _DigitaLVampirE_

"The West is accusing Muslims of extremism and terrorism. If someone exploded a bomb on his body, he would be right to do so unless the British government apologizes and withdraws the 'sir' title."

How odd that the west would make such a claim.

[_DigitaLVampirE_]

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Britain's ambassador to Tehran on Tuesday to protest against the knighting of author Salman Rushdie, calling it a provocative act, the official IRNA news agency said.

"This insulting, suspicious and improper act by the British government is an obvious example of fighting against Islam," Ebrahim Rahimpour, Foreign Ministry director for Western Europe, told British Ambassador Geoffrey Adams, IRNA said.

Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses" prompted the late Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa death warrant against him in 1989.

Rushdie, who lived in hiding for nine years, was awarded the knighthood for services to literature in Queen Elizabeth's birthday honours list published on Saturday.

"It has seriously wounded the beliefs of 1.5 billion Muslims and followers of other religions ... we hold the British government and queen responsible for the circumstances of this provocation, which caused the anger of Muslims," Rahimpour said.

IRNA quoted Adams as saying the knighting of Rushdie was a cultural, not a political, act.

The Islamic Republic's government formally distanced itself in 1998 from the original fatwa against Rushdie, issued by Khomeini who said the book committed blasphemy against Islam. Khomeini died in 1989.

But shortly after it disavowed the death edict under a deal with Britain, Iranian media said three Iranian clerics called on followers to kill Rushdie, saying the fatwa was irrevocable.

thestaronline | June 20, 2007

[_DigitaLVampirE_]

A supporter of Malaysia's Islamic party shouts slogans during a protest outside the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur June 20, 2007.
The protest was against the award of a knighthood to Salman Rushdie, whose novel the "Satanic Verses" outraged Muslims worldwide. (Zainal Abd Halim/Reuters)

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Supporters of Malaysia's hardline Islamic party protested outside the British embassy on Wednesday against the award of a knighthood to Salman Rushdie, whose novel the "Satanic Verses" outraged Muslims worldwide.

Chanting "Destroy Salman Rushdie" and "Destroy Britain," some 30 members of the opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia urged Britain to withdraw the honor or risk the consequences.

"This has tainted the whole knighthood, the whole hall of fame of the British system," party treasurer Hatta Ramli told reporters after the party handed a protest note to embassy officials.

"The British government must be responsible because it has created a sudden feeling of anger not just on Salman Rushdie but on the British government," he said. "They have to bear the consequences." he said.

About 40 policemen, including a dozen armed with batons, stood by. A spokesman at the British High Commission was not immediately available for comment.

Rushdie, whose book prompted late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to issue a 1989 fatwa death warrant against him for blasphemy, was awarded a knighthood last week for services to literature in Queen Elizabeth's birthday honors list.

On Tuesday, Muslim countries Iran and Pakistan summoned top British envoys to protest against the award. Small protests have taken place in several Pakistani cities.

Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents also condemned the knighthood for the "apostate" British writer, who was born into a Muslim family in India in 1947.

"We ... consider this another major affront to Islam by the infidels," said a Taliban spokesman, reading a statement from the group's leadership council over the telephone.

Afghanistan's Western-backed government has not commented on the award and there have been no protests.

The "Satanic Verses" prompted protests, some violent, by Muslims in many countries after it was published in 1988. Muslims say the novel blasphemed against the Prophet Mohammad and ridiculed the Koran and events in early Muslim history.

In 1998 Iran's government formally distanced itself from the original fatwa, which had forced Rushdie into hiding for nine years. But hardline groups in Iran regularly renew the call for his murder, saying Khomeini's fatwa is irrevocable.

(Additional reporting by Sayed Salahuddin in KABUL)

abcnews|Jun 20, 2007

[_DigitaLVampirE_]

Salman Rushdie: does a knighthood really still get you a decent restaurant table in Manhattan in 2007? Photograph: Eamonn McCabe

I still don't understand why a leftie like Salman Rushdie, who abandoned Britain for New York in a huff, would want an honour from the British establishment.

Four names, five if you count Dame Edna Everage and Barry Humphries, caught the headline-writers attention on Friday when the Queen's birthday honours list was published. There was Edna, Oleg Gordievsky, the famous Soviet double agent, Ian ''Beefy'' Botham and - surely some mistake? - Salman Rushdie.

I was reviewing tomorrow morning's papers on BBC News 24 that evening. We all enjoyed Botham's promotion, a popular sporting hero with lots of charity work to his credit. But I latched on to Rushdie's knighthood. Why on earth would HMG offer him a K? And why would he accept one? I wondered.

"Why would a leftie who had abandoned Britain for New York in a huff want a K from the British establishment?" I asked aloud. God knows, he may be posh and pompous, but he must have a residual sense of the ridiculous. Does it really still get you a decent restaurant table in Manhattan in 2007?

Since Friday, the slower end of the 24/7 global news cycle has cottoned on to the honour and rioted in Iran and Pakistan. Rather more safely, there has been disquiet in the House of Lords, where Labour peer Lord Ahmed can sometimes be relied on to provide inflammatory rent-a-quote contributions to the great East-West debate, as much a clash of egos as of civilisations.

From what I understand, his K was proposed within a Byzantine series of Whitehall committees, probably emanating within the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
It is suggested that English Pen, the writers group, may have put his name up. Politicians had nothing to do with it: the gong is all down to civil servants. Tony Blair withdrew from this sort of nomination in 2005 after he was accused of peerage-peddling. It was all left in the hands of the innocents.

Which is what seems to have happened here. I can see why Pen might have wanted to promote Rushdie. He is a supporter of Pen, a former vice-president. It regards him as a great figure, a bridge between Europe and Asia, whose Satanic Verses was primarily a satire on Thatcherism.

A statement on International Pen's website echoes the sentiment. It speaks sorrowfully of its repugnance against "intimidation and inflammatory statements'' directed at a distinguished writer who has defended his own freedom of speech - and that of writers around the world. The Foreign Office agreed.

Well, yes. Like many people I know, I thought Midnight's Children a magical novel, though I have had trouble reading more than 50 pages of subsequent novels, including The Satanic Verses.

I once sat next to Rushdie at a dinner party. I can remember feeling sorry for him listening to his plight, though I can't remember a thing he actually said. What I do remember is the three coppers in the kitchen as I passed en route to the loo. ''What about the front door?'' I asked, not unkindly. "Don't worry about the front door, sir,'' one of them replied.

Rushdie's Japanese translator was stabbed to death, his Italian translator wounded, his man in Norway also targeted unsuccessfully. Yet all the while he seems to have remained the centre of his own drama, sustained by the usual literary suspects, the man who decamped to New York in 2000 as a celebrity writer, wounded by disrespectful treatment in London.

So good on Pen for its generosity of spirit, and bad on Whitehall for not spotting the trouble it might do to the tender flower that is British-Muslim relations at this delicate time.

But I finish where I started? Why does a literary nomad (John Sutherland's description) of Rushdie's standing, a self-styled leftist, Kings College Cambridge, no less, need such a bauble when he already has honours galore in his own trade? It's a mystery to me. I haven't been so puzzled since Harold Pinter took his CH. But at least the CH goes after your name - where all the best honours go. What's more, Cliff Richard doesn't have one.

By Michael White|June 20, 2007

Rushdie row 'a shock to knighthood committee'

Rushdie honour was a slip of the pen

[_DigitaLVampirE_]

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A group of hardline Pakistani Muslim clerics said on Thursday they had bestowed a religious title on Osama bin Laden in response to a British knighthood for author Salman Rushdie.

The Pakistan Ulema Council gave bin Laden the title "Saifullah", or sword of Allah, in response to the knighthood awarded to Rushdie last week for services to literature.

Rushdie's novel, "The Satanic Verses" published in 1988, outraged many Muslims around the world. Muslims say it blasphemed against the Prophet Mohammad and ridiculed the Koran.

"If a blasphemer can be given the title 'Sir' by the West despite the fact he's hurt the feelings of Muslims, then a mujahid who has been fighting for Islam against the Russians, Americans and British must be given the lofty title of Islam, Saifullah," the council's chairman, Tahir Ashrafi, told Reuters.

Bin Laden was one of many Arabs who helped Afghan mujahideen battle Soviet invaders in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Pakistan and Iran have protested against the knighthood awarded by Britain's Queen Elizabeth and small demonstrations have been held in various parts of Pakistan and in Malaysia.

On Monday, Pakistan's parliament adopted a resolution condemning the knighthood and said Britain should withdraw it.

Religious Affairs Minister Mohammad Ejaz-ul-Haq, son of the late military president Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, told the assembly that if someone committed a suicide bombing to protect the honour of the Prophet Mohammad, his act was justified.

He later said he did not mean such attacks would be justified but was merely saying militants could use the knighthood as a justification.


"IMAGE OF ISLAM"

However, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said Haq should be dismissed, saying in a statement that Haq "had done a great disservice both to the image of Islam and the standing of Pakistan by calling for the murder of foreign citizens."

The speaker of the National Assembly has expunged Haq's comments from the record, citing the national interest.

Britain has defended the knighthood, stressing the importance of free speech and saying that it was part of a trend of honouring Muslims in the British community.

Rushdie was born to Muslim parents in India, prompting Muslims to accuse him of apostasy after "The Satanic Verses" was published.

The late Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa religious edict against Rushdie in 1989 calling for his death and forcing him into hiding for nine years.

In 1998 Iran's government formally distanced itself from the fatwa issued by Khomeini, but hardline groups in Iran regularly renew the call for his killing, saying Khomeini's fatwa is irrevocable.

On Thursday, the speaker of the Punjab provincial assembly said blasphemers should be killed while Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of Pakistan's ruling party, said British Prime Minister Tony Blair was "personally and mentally against Islam".

Afghanistan's Taliban militant group also urged a strong Islamic response to the knighthood.

"We hope that Muslims and Islamic societies show a strong and serious response ... and to force the British government to apologise to Muslims and retract this title," the group said in a statement posted on the Internet on Thursday.

(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider and Inal Ersan in Dubai)

By Zeeshan Haider|Thu Jun 21, 2007

Bin Laden honoured over Rushdie row

Bin Laden honored by Pakistan scholars in UK Rushdie row

Pakistani Muslim Clerics Honor Bin Laden in Response to Rushdie's Knighthood

[_DigitaLVampirE_]

Pakistani traders on Thursday announced a reward of 10-million rupees (%165 000) for anyone who beheads Salman Rushdie following Britain's decision to award the novelist a knighthood.

The announcement came during a protest by 200 traders at Aabpara market, one of the main bazaars in the capital, Islamabad, an Agence France-Presse photographer said.

"We will give 10-million rupees to anyone who beheads Rushdie," the secretary general of the Islamabad Traders' Association, Ajmal Baluch, told the cheering crowd.

He also called on Islamic countries to boycott British products in protest at the honour to Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims consider blasphemous.

Participants chanted "Cut off the head of Salman Rushdie!" and carried placards calling for Rushdie to be killed.

Other placards demanded that the Pakistani government give the country's highest award to fugitive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar and al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in response to the British move, witnesses said.

Rushdie was issued with a death sentence by Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 in a fatwa that has never been revoked.

Khomeini's successor as supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in January 2005 he still believed the British novelist's killing would be authorised by Islam. -- AFP

Mail&Guardian Online|21 June 2007

Pak traders offer reward for Rushdie beheading