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| India-Pakistan | |
| Rushdie knighthood 'justifies suicide attacks' | |
| 2007-06-18 | |
| The award of a knighthood to the author Salman Rushdie justifies suicide attacks, a Pakistani government minister said today. "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, told the Pakistani parliament in Islamabad. "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." The comments follow other condemnation of the award for Rushdie, whose novel The Satanic Verses provoked worldwide protests over allegations that it insulted Islam. He received the knighthood for services to literature in the Queen's birthday honours list published on Saturday. Earlier today Pakistani MPs demanded Britain withdraw Rushdie's knighthood. A government-backed resolution condemning the author's knighthood was passed unanimously by the lower house of the Pakistani parliament amid angry protests across the country. MPs said the honour was an insult to the religious sentiments of Muslims. In the eastern city of Multan, hardline Muslim students burned effigies of the Queen and Rushdie, chanting "Kill him! Kill him!" Pakistan's minister for parliamentary affairs, Sher Afgan Khan Niazi, who proposed the resolution condemning the honour, branded Rushdie a "blasphemer". She told MPs: "The 'sir' title from Britain for blasphemer Salman Rushdie has hurt the sentiments of the Muslims across the world. Every religion should be respected. I demand the British government immediately withdraw the title as it is creating religious hatred." Also today, Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said many Muslims would regard the knighthood as the final insult from Tony Blair before he leaves office next week. "Salman Rushdie earned notoriety amongst Muslims for the highly insulting and blasphemous manner in which he portrayed early Islamic figures," Dr Bari said. "The granting of a knighthood to him can only do harm to the image of our country in the eyes of hundreds of millions of Muslims across the world. Many will interpret the knighthood as a final contemptuous parting gift from Tony Blair to the Muslim world." Yesterday, Iranian politicians accused Britain of insulting Islam by awarding the knighthood to Rushdie, who was forced into hiding for a decade after the country's late spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa calling for his assassination. Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry, said the decision to honour the novelist was an orchestrated act of aggression directed against Islamic societies. He said Rushdie was "one of the most hated figures" in the Islamic world. "Honouring and commending an apostate and hated figure will definitely put the British officials [in a position] of confrontation with Islamic societies," Mr Hosseini said.
The Iranian government formally distanced itself in 1998 from the original fatwa against Rushdie, issued in 1989 by Khomeini. But shortly after it disavowed the death edict under a deal with Britain, the Iranian media said three Iranian clerics had called on followers to kill Rushdie, saying the fatwa was irrevocable and that it was the duty of Muslims to carry it out. A spokesman for the Foreign Office said the honour was "richly deserved" and the reasons for it were "self-explanatory". In a statement after the announcement of his knighthood on Saturday, Rushdie, 59, said he was "thrilled and humbled to receive this great honour". | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #16 The longer we postpone the butcher's bill, the uglier this gets. While the rest of your somewhat garbled post is just as relevant, JAE, the above remains as a lasting statement of exactly what awaits both the West and Islam as well. Either we begin to enact collective punishment in the form of disproportionate retaliation, or we may as well sit back and watch this whole shitheap slide off the ledge into annihilation on a massive scale. Here's the kicker: THE CHOICE IS OURS, NOT ISLAM'S. Is-fucking-Lam hasn't a damned clue. It is only the more enlightened Western nations that have sufficient scruples to implement the drastic measures which will bring Islam back into line before we throw up our collective hands and simply glass over some BILLION people and their arid domain. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-06-18 23:51 |
| #15 If only the Brits really had intended to give offense I would be so very pleased. I want them to take offense, to be offended and act out their true nature in every possible opportunity. The only hope we have it to make out deluded bretheran of the left, sunk so very deep in the intoxicating pig wallow of self-rightous political correctness, see up close and personal how dangerous these people really are. Through kitman and taqquiya they have painted a face of civil discourse and cultural maturity, disguising the true face of their totalitarian war-cult, their intolerant world agenda, their determined colonization and occupation of the West. Sadly, the Brits didn't really have the stones for it, it was just a sad error and there will be yet again some artful compromise, veiled in rhetoric and fawning tripe..... The longer we postpone the butcher's bill, the uglier this gets. Couple this with the budding national explosion as the administration and the cowards in the senate again try and sell out our national heritage, our treasury and our most precious possessions, our very nation, from udner us in a sullied attempt to but votes from people whoe only goals are our wealth, out lands, and their reconquista! Waht a f----ng mess. |
| Posted by: JustAboutEnough 2007-06-18 23:37 |
| #14 TOny...Why do you guys tolerate this crap? |
| Posted by: anymouse 2007-06-18 22:07 |
| #13 Anyone else have the feeling that things are likely to get *really hot* this summer? If some of these r-tards start booming in the West, it could be ... bad. And as for burning an effigy of the Queen - we are not amused! |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2007-06-18 20:07 |
| #12 Come to think of it, I haven't heard of any protests in Britain against this. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-06-18 19:58 |
| #11 Long past time for a midnight sunrise over Islamabad. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2007-06-18 19:35 |
| #10 It's getting closer now! Tick, Tock! |
| Posted by: Squinty Gleans9834 2007-06-18 19:28 |
| #9 A 1% change in the relative humidity justifies suicide attacks to these blood drunk bastards. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2007-06-18 18:27 |
| #8 Suicide attacks justify us nuking the crap out of you, Mecca and the entire Middle East. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-06-18 17:40 |
| #7 "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." Should this Pakistani threat come to pass, I care not who does it—Britain, America or the Man in the Fucking Moon—but Pakistan should have the crap bombed out of it. This is a "religious affairs minister" fer fuck's sake. He's openly addressing the damned Pakistani Parliament! If Pakistan cannot bring themselve to censure such blatant warmongering, then war is what they need to get. This Islamic crapulence MUST END. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-06-18 17:38 |
| #6 I agree, mrp. If they are all so incensed and troubled, maybe they should try self-immolation like the monks did in South Vietnam, circa 1968. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2007-06-18 17:33 |
| #5 "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." It isn't the idea of a Muslim exploding a bomb on his body that we in the West find so appalling. It's his insistence on doing so in the midst of innocent men, women, and children. |
| Posted by: mrp 2007-06-18 17:22 |
| #4 "The west is accusing Muslims of extremism and terrorism. If someone exploded a bomb on his body he would be right to do so..." The Islamic version of the Circle of Life... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-06-18 16:53 |
| #3 the sun setting is reason enough for them to justify attacks. We need to come to terms with this and not be afraid to retaliate. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2007-06-18 16:53 |
| #2 And, suicide attacks justify swift deportations, water cannons, rubber bullets...and that's just for starters. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2007-06-18 16:45 |
| #1 "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 fact, islam is a religion full of humor, simply, it's not intentional. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2007-06-18 16:43 |