A Challenge That Will Go Unanswered

They may start killing each other in the streets over this one.

If Pakistan is so angry, give back our aid
Pakistanis have every right to voice their anger at the award of a knighthood to Salman Rushdie.

Equally, the rest of us have every right to express our anger at the deeply offensive response of Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, Pakistan's religious affairs minister who invoked the world's 1.5 billion Muslims and said: "If someone commits suicide bombing to protect the honour of the Prophet Mohammed, his act is justified."

C'mon, dude, be a leader, offer yourself as an example.

He later "clarified" his words, but we all know exactly what he was up to. And what of the Labour peer Lord Ahmed, who responds by saying Rushdie has "blood on his hands".

1000 to 1 he won't lead by becoming a splodeydope, either.

Some people like Rushdie's novels, others don't. Some say he's smug, others say he's delightful.

Yes, he has cost this country a lot in protecting him and through him, a core value of freedom of speech. But unless there is a strange and violent back-story we didn't know, Sir Salman hasn't the smallest drop of blood on his hands.

If Pakistan is so offended, however, there is a dignified way to deal with the problem.

Last year, Tony Blair went to Lahore to praise its "enlightened moderation" and to announce a rise in our aid budget to Pakistan from £236 million to £480 million.

If this is tainted money, it can presumably be returned.

They'll Surely Be 'Angered'

Here's something that's sure to get the mullah's and acolyte's knickers in a knot. All of the whining, protests and fatwa or two that have come about since Salman Rushdie was knighted five days ago, has had a chilling effect: Rushdie's book, The Satanic Verses, published in 1988, has experienced a growth in sales.

Home secretary defends Rushdie knighthood
John Reid today insisted Britain stood by the knighthood awarded to Salman Rushdie and would not apologise for the honour, despite anger in some Muslim countries.

The issue was "sensitive", the home secretary said following a speech in New York, but the protection of people's right to express their opinions in literature, argument and politics was "of overriding value to our society".

The British high commissioner in Islamabad, Robert Brinkley, has expressed concern to Pakistan's government over remarks supposedly made by the minister for religious affairs, Mohammed Ejaz ul-Haq, which appeared to justify suicide bombings as a response to the knighthood.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said Mr Brinkley had expressed "deep concern about what the minister of religious affairs is reported to have said".

Iran has also stepped up protests over the a knighthood for Rushdie, whose 1988 novel The Satanic Verses prompted a fatwa calling for his assassination.

Iran's state radio reported today that 221 of the country's 290 MPs signed a statement condemning Rushdie's knighthood.

Yesterday Iran's foreign ministry summoned the British ambassador to complain about the award.

An Iranian foreign ministry official, Ebrahim Rahimpour, told the ambassador, Geoffrey Adams, that the decision to award the honour to the author was a "provocative act" that had angered Muslims, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

Speaking in New York, Mr Reid noted that some Christians were angered by film The Life of Brian, and some Jewish people were upset when Mel Gibson made films, but that this had to be tolerated.

"We have a set of values that accords people honours for their contribution to literature even if we don't agree with their point of view," he said. "That's our way and that's what we stand by."

He added: "We have very strong laws about promoting racial intolerance.

It sure would be nice if these PC nitwits would get it through their heads that Islam, like any other relgion (or anti-religion), is not a race.

It isn't a free-for-all. We've thought very carefully about it.

"But we have a right to express opinions, and a tolerance of other people's point of view, and we don't apologise for that."

Rushdie went into hiding for a decade after Iran's late spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for the author's assassination. The Iranian government distanced itself from the fatwa in 1998, declaring that it would not support the edict, but could not rescind it. He received the knighthood for services to literature in the Queen's birthday honours list published on Saturday.

Ahh, Khomeini, the spiritual leader. Here's a classic example of Khomeini's spiritual leadership.

The row over the honour has done no harm to sales of The Satanic Verses, nearly 20 years after it was first published in 1988.

The book was today ranked 12th in UK book sales by Amazon. It is the only book in the top rankings not published very recently.

On the US version of Amazon the book ranked 73rd.

Religion of Peace™

There's more.

Life Returns To Normal

Some would say that this rather bizarre. Actually, it's not.

Pakistanis burn effigies of Salman Rushdie in protest at knighthood

Salman Rushdie faced fresh threats of suicide attacks this afternoon following his knighthood.

A senior minister in the Pakistani government insisted he be stripped of the honour which was described as an affront to Muslims and a justification to kill the author.

In 1989 Rushdie's book Satanic Verses caused outrage in the Muslim world and led to the issuing of a fatwa calling for his death. Sir Salman went into hiding with round the clock protection but was slowly able to return to public life by 1999.

The inflammatory remarks by religious affairs minister Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq could reignite the threats to his life.

Mr ul-Haq told the Pakistani parliament that the writer's knighthood announced in the Queen's Birthday Honours "was an occasion for the (world's) 1.5billion Muslims to look at the seriousness of this decision".

He added: "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 apologises and withdraws the 'sir' title."

In the city of Multan, hardline Muslim students burned effigies of the Queen and Rushdie. About 100 students carrying banners condemning the author chanted, "kill him, kill him".

Religion of Peace™.

There's more.

Will This Be An 'Affront' To Islam?

Salman Rushdie has amassed for himself a fair number of distinctions over the years, among them the Booker of Bookers prize, the Whitbread novel award (twice), the James Tait Black memorial prize, and a fatwa from the Ayatollah Khomeini calling for his immediate assassination.

Yesterday, however, came the big one: a knighthood recognising the services to literature of one of the world's most lauded - and most divisive - literary grandees. "I am thrilled and humbled to receive this great honour, and am very grateful that my work has been recognised in this way," the newly-minted Sir Salman said in a statement.

The announcement signals a belated endorsement by the British establishment, 18 years after the author was forced to go on the run after The Satanic Verses was condemned as blasphemy by Iran's late spiritual leader. Britain broke off diplomatic relations over the incident; Rushdie himself had to live in hiding for a decade.

That strange sound you hear is Khomeini roaring from his special place in Hell.