Rushdie knighthood upsets Muslims world over
June 19th, 2007 by ashish
In yet another sign of intolerance, the grant of a knighthood to Salman Rushdie has provoked strong feelings in Muslim-majority countries, with people again repeating the concept of this being an insult to Islam and Muslims, and how this is a move by Britain against the Muslim countries. Read some of the comments:
The honour was intended to recognise the contribution to literature by one of Britain’s most high-profile - and much vilified - writers. But the government’s decision to give Salman Rushdie a knighthood has generated the kind of international furore that once threatened to engulf his career and put his life at risk.
The Pakistan parliament called on the British government to reverse the decision or face further protests from Muslim nations. “If someone commits suicide bombing to protect the honour of the Prophet Muhammad, his act is justified,” the minister for religious affairs, Ijaz ul-Haq, told Pakistan’s national assembly, according to the translation from Urdu by Reuters. He urged Muslim countries to break diplomatic ties with London.
It was his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, published in 1988, that provoked the ire of many Muslims and led to the issuing of a fatwa in 1989 by the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khomeini. Scotland Yard reported a number of attempts to assassinate him and he had to go into hiding with an armed police guard. The Japanese publisher of the book was killed, others associated with the book suffered attacks and threats. The UK broke off diplomatic relations with Iran; they were only restored in 1998 after the Iranian government had given assurances that they would not harm Rushdie.
Salman Rushdie has written many famous books, and is acclaimed as a great writer. Typically, when a person writes a book or any other such comment on a subject and you don’t like the reference, one can protest, or vote with their feet (by not buying the book). But it is typically only Islamic fanatics who will, without reading the book and making a judgment by themselves, protest and actually threaten the author with harm. Threaten to the extent that an international fatwa was issued against Rushdie, and he had to go into hiding for his life. His Japanese distributor was actually killed.
I really doubt whether any of those who wax eloquent about the wrong deeds by Salman Rushdie have actually read the book. It is enough that an author has said something against the prophet, and it should be down with his head. And given other things that have happened in Europe such as honor killings, killing of the Dutch film-maker, it is very much possible that only the fact that Rushdie had gone into hiding saved his life.
Islam needs to have a reformation, where they start believing that to have anyone allegedly say something against the religion or its prophet does not mean that you have to kill the person. If Islam is a religion of peace, it is necessary that people who believe themselves to be followers should also believe. If a person has done something wrong, there are peaceful means of protest, of using the system to get justice, but not have the liberty to go and kill someone. Till the time the leaders of Islam cannot believe that Islam will not be harmed by somebody saying something, it is likely to face further public ridicule. The affair of Rushdie and the fatwa would have done incalculable harm to the image of Islam.
The words spoken by the Pakistani minister are below contempt. Suicide bombing is the worst form of violence. It typically harms the innocent against which there are strict instructions in Islam, and in addition, any form of suicide is condemned in Islam.
