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dmbfan
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
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 Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 5:34 pm Post subject: Drudge Report |
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Muslim world inflamed by Rushdie knighthoodBen Hoyle
Sir Salman Rushdie celebrates his 60th birthday today in familiar circumstances: he is once again the subject of death threats across the Islamic world.
Eighteen years after the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to kill him, a government minister in Pakistan said yesterday that Rushdie�s recent knighthood justified suicide bombing.
The question of blasphemy in The Satanic Verses, Rushdie�s 1988 tale of a prophet misled by the devil, remains a deeply sensitive issue in much of the Muslim world and the author�s inclusion in the Queen�s Birthday Honours last week has inflamed anti-British sentiment.
Gerald Butt, editor of the authoritative Middle East Economic Survey, told The Times: �It will be interpreted as an action calculated to goad Muslims at a time when the atmosphere is already very tense and Britain�s standing in the region is very low because of its involvement in Iraq and its lack of action in tackling the Palestine issue.�
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For nine years Salman Rushdie lived as a virtual prisoner, changing addresses constantly, and protected around the clock by British security at an estimated cost of �10 million
Michael Binyon
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A symbol of free speech. Sign our petition in support of Sir Salman Rushdie
Hardliners in Iran revived calls for his murder yesterday. Mehdi Kuchakzadeh, a Tehran MP, declared: �Rushdie died the moment the late Imam [Ayatollah Khomeini] issued the fatwa.�
The Organisation to Commemorate Martyrs of the Muslim World, a fringe hardline group, offered a reward of $150,000 (�75,000) to any successful assassin.
Forouz Rajaefar, the group�s secretary general, said: �The British and the supporters of the anti-Islam Salman Rushdie could rest assured that the writer�s nightmare will not end until the moment of his death and we will bestow kisses on the hands of whomsoever is able to execute this apostate.�
Effigies of Rushdie and the Queen were burnt in Pakistan, where presidential elections at the end of the year have destablised an already volatile political climate. Hundreds of protesters in Multan, Karachi and Lahore set fire to British flags and chanted �Death to Britain, death to Rushdie� and Islamist leaders called for nationwide protests after Friday prayers.
Ijaz-ul-Haq, the Religious Affairs Minister, told the assembly in Islamabad that the award of the knighthood excused suicide bombing. �If somebody has to attack by strapping bombs to his body to protect the honour of the Prophet then it is justified,� he said.
He later retracted his statement, explaining that he had intended to say that knighting Rushdie will foster extremism. �If someone blows himself up, he will consider himself justified. How can we fight terrorism when those who commit blasphemy are rewarded by the West? We demand an apology by the British government. Their action has hurt the sentiments of 1.5 billion Muslims."
Pakistan�s national assembly earlier unanimously passed a resolution condemning Rushdie�s knighthood, which it said would encourage �contempt� for the Prophet Muhammad.
Rushdie was forced to go into hiding for almost a decade after the Ayatollah Khomeini issued the death sentence over The Satanic Verses.
On Valentine�s Day in 1989 the spiritual figurehead of the Iranian revolution pronounced on Teheran radio that: �The author of The Satanic Verses, which is against Islam, the Prophet, the Koran, and all those involved in its publication who were aware of its content, are sentenced to death.�
In Britain, the subsequent hate campaign helped to politicise and radicalise a generation of young British Muslims. The taxpayer is believed to have spent more than �10 million protecting Rushdie.
Only Khomeini had the power officially to lift the fatwa and he died without doing so, but in 1998, the Iranian Foreign Minister promised his British counterpart, Robin Cook, that Iran would not implement it.
Gradually, Rushdie emerged back into the literary spotlight and in recent years has appeared at events in London and New York, where he now lives.
It is understood that when he is in this country, Rushdie continues to receive round-the-clock police protection.
Muhammad Ali Hosseini, Iran�s foreign affairs spokesman, said on Sunday that the knighthood �will definitely put the British officials in confrontation with Islamic societies. This act shows that insulting Islamic sacred values is not accidental. It is planned, organised, guided and supported by some Western countries.� |
Yep, the more people keep caving in to the demands of radical muslims, with the mindset of "If we just leave them alone...they will be happy, and leave us alone"....................uh, NO!
The more people give in to the radical muslim world, the more they will demand, threat and take.
dmbfan |
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cbclark4
Joined: 20 Aug 2006
Location: Masan
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| Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 7:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Seriously what did Rushdie do to deserve Beknighting? |
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JMO
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Daegu
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| Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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| cbclark4 wrote: |
| Seriously what did Rushdie do to deserve Beknighting? |
He is a fantastic writer, thats all it takes. Have a look through the list of people who get knighted, it doesn't take much. Its sickening that a guy has to live like this because of something he wrote. You could also say he deserved the knighthood for the ordeal he went through and is still going through. |
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twg
Joined: 02 Nov 2006
Location: Getting some fresh air...
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| Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 7:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Wow, all you need is some posts celebrating the views of Limbaugh, Coulter and Hannity and you'll have yourself a fine douchebag buffet here in the off topic forum... |
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dmbfan
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:57 pm Post subject: |
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You look like a fine specimen of a douchebag with your pants down.
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indytrucks
Joined: 09 Apr 2003
Location: The Shelf
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| Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:08 pm Post subject: |
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| cbclark4 wrote: |
| Seriously what did Rushdie do to deserve Beknighting? |
| Quote: |
The son of a successful businessman, Sir Salman was born into a Muslim family in Mumbai in 1947.
He was educated in England at Rugby School and studied history at Cambridge University.
Booker prize
Following an advertising career in London, he became a full-time writer.
His first novel, Grimus, was published in 1975 but was generally ignored by the book-buying public and literary establishment.
But his second effort - the magic realist novel Midnight's Children - catapulted him to literary fame.
It won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was awarded the Booker of Bookers in 1993 after being judged the best novel to have won the prize during its 25-year history.
Sir Salman, who turns 60 on 19 June, is renowned as a purveyor of story as political statement.
He takes history and fictionalises it, with imaginative brilliance, and much of his work is set in his native India and Pakistan.
His fourth book - The Satanic Verses in 1988 - describes a cosmic battle between good and evil and combines fantasy, philosophy and farce.
It was immediately condemned by the Islamic world because of its perceived blasphemous depiction of the prophet Muhammad.
It was banned in many countries with large Muslim communities and in 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran's spiritual leader, issued a fatwa, ordering Sir Salman's execution.
In backing Jack Straw over his comments on Muslim women wearing veils, Sir Salman said veils "suck" as they were a symbol of the "limitation of women".
He also weighed into the furore surrounding the Danish cartoons, which satirised the Prophet Muhammad, warning against Islamic "totalitarianism".
Of his knighthood for services to literature, Rushdie said: "I am thrilled and humbled to receive this great honour, and am very grateful that my work has been recognised in this way." |
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twg
Joined: 02 Nov 2006
Location: Getting some fresh air...
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| Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 7:39 am Post subject: |
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| dmbfan wrote: |
| You look like a fine specimen of a douchebag with your pants down. |
You might want to put more thought into your comebacks from now on. |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 8:41 am Post subject: |
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Rushdie's East/West collection of stories is excellent, especially the first, "East" part of the book.
I now have to read other of his stuff. He knows how to write a story and has a distinct voice. Hard to get out of one's head actually. I can just imagine what the Satanic Verses might have done to the islamic faithful, those rare few who would have read it, perhaps just a handful of them. |
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