Salman Rushdie Knighthood Fury

British author Salman Rushdie could very well have spent sleepless nights since the day he received the news that he would be called a ‘sir’.

From Iran to Pakistan to Malaysia, people have poured onto the streets venting anger in protest at the honouring of the author of The Satanic Verses with a knighthood by the Queen of Britain.

Rushdie went into hiding after Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a 1989 religious edict ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie because his novel allegedly insulted Islam. Iran’s government said in 1998 it could not retract the fatwa.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned the British ambassador to complain over Britain’s decision to grant a knighthood to Rushdie.

In New York, British Home Secretary John Reid said Britain will not apologise for its decision to bestow a knighthood on Rushdie.

“We have a set of values that accrues people honours for their contribution to literature even when they don’t agree with our point of view,” Reid said in response to a question after a speech to US business leaders.

In Malaysia people protested outside the British embassy following news of the knighthood.

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

“This has tainted the whole knighthood, the whole hall of fame of the British system,” party treasurer Hatta Ramli said.

The knighthood to Rushdie has also triggered massive protests in Pakistan where hundreds of people protested in the central city of Multan.

There, an effigy of Rushdie and a British flag were burned for the third day running. Effigies of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II were burned earlier in the week.

Traders, religious students and members of a religious party held separate demonstrations throughout the week.
Pakistani newspapers lashed out at the knighthood yesterday.

“Britain’s decision to bestow a knighthood on Salman Rushdie is one of those inexplicable follies that seem designed to rally the forces of resurgent extremism in today’s dangerously unstable world,” said The News, a respected English-language daily.

Nawa-I-Waqt, a mass circulation Urdu-language paper, said in a comment piece that “if you want to do something meaningful, then make a film about Lady Diana’s affairs” and those of other members of the British Royal family.

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.