Rushdie title 'may spark attacks'
Britain's knighthood to the author Salman Rushdie contributes to insulting Islam and may lead to terrorism, a Pakistani minister has said.
Such actions are the root cause of terrorism, Religious Affairs Minister Ejaz-ul-Haq told parliament.
The minister later said he had not meant to condone or incite terrorism but stress its origins.
Pakistan's parliament has condemned the knighthood. Iran says it shows 'Islamophobia' among British officials.
Mr ul-Haq was speaking during a session of Pakistan's National Assembly in which it unanimously condemned Britain's award of a knighthood to the author Salman Rushdie and demanded it be withdrawn.
His comments in the Urdu language caused uproar.
"If someone commits suicide bombing to protect the honour of the Prophet Mohammad, his act is justified," he said, according to the translation by the Reuters news agency.
"If Britain doesn't withdraw the award, all Muslim countries should break off diplomatic relations."
Opponents accused Mr ul-Haq of inciting violence.
Later he returned to the floor of the assembly and said his remarks were not meant to be a justification of suicide attacks.
Mr ul-Haq is a well known Islamic hardliner. He is the son of former President Zia ul-Haq who carried out a process of 'Islamisation' in Pakistan before dying in a plane crash in 1988.
Iran criticism
The resolution passed by the lower house of parliament said that honouring Salman Rushdie "hurt Muslim sentiments".
Sir Salman's book The Satanic Verses sparked protests by Muslims around the world and led to Iran issuing a fatwa in 1989, ordering his execution.
Iran also criticised the knighthood, saying praising the "apostate" showed Islamophobia among British officials.
A spokesman for the British High Commission in Islamabad would not comment on the parliamentary resolution, but he said the knighthood was a reflection of Mr Rushdie's contribution to literature throughout a long and diverse career.
Like Iran, Pakistan is an Islamic republic with an overwhelmingly Muslim population which saw violent protests against The Satanic Verses in 1989.
Pakistan's parliamentary affairs minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi, who proposed the resolution, said the knighthood would "encourage people to commit blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammad".
Sir Salman, 59, was one of almost 950 people to appear on the Queen's Birthday Honours list, which is aimed at recognising outstanding achievement.
The controversial Indian-born author's 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.
In 1998, the Iranian government said it would no longer support the fatwa, but some groups have said it is irrevocable.
The following year, Sir Salman returned to public life.
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."
Uh, yeah, whose brilliant idea was that then?
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Pakistan's parliamentary affairs minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi, who proposed the resolution, said the knighthood would "encourage people to commit blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammad".
This is a bad thing?
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Dalton wrote:
Yes, let's just piss off a bunch of deranged religious extremists. Nothing will happen, nope.
As opposed to letting them fester, living in fear that we may accidentally offend this cesspool in some other inevitable manner while they gain credibility and paint people like you as cowards?
Dalton wrote:
Yes, let's just piss off a bunch of deranged religious extremists. Nothing will happen, nope.
While we are at it, let's remove all the TV shows which feature homosexual characters from the air. I mean, it's just pissing off a bunch of deranged religious extremists here in the States. The more we cater to the tender sensibilities of retrograde fanatics, the safer we'll be!
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"If Britain doesn't withdraw the award, all Muslim countries should break off diplomatic relations."
Go for it
Yes, let's just piss off a bunch of deranged religious extremists. Nothing will happen, nope.
Bloody hell, you don't think they are pissed off already ?
This isn't poking the hornets nest or something similar, its getting on with fucking life while the crazy bloody things buzz around.
By definition, deranged religious extremists don't really require our input to go batfuck nuts, especially after we've been shooting them for the last...how long ?
On the other hand, yeah, why not. In addition to removing all trace of homosexual references from our media, lets get those goddamn whores off TV, y'know the ones I mean, those goverment officials in the west who don't have their Burkhas on.
"If Britain doesn't withdraw the award, all Muslim countries should break off diplomatic relations."
Go for it
Indeed. It just sounds like a bunch of half-assed blackmailing attempts to me. What country is honestly going to break off ties with another because of who they knighted? And if one did, it's not exactly going to be a close ally anyway.
"If Britain doesn't withdraw the award, all Muslim countries should break off diplomatic relations."
Go for it
Yes, let's just piss off a bunch of deranged religious extremists. Nothing will happen, nope.
...because attempting to appease them has had such a sterling success rate and hasn't at all made them act like whiny little children, demanding even more concessions to their lunacy.
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Good show!
Four cheers for Sir Salman and the middle finger to the islamic scum.
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That grandstanding moron of a religious affairs minister can fuck off, Rushdie is a great author (or so my sister who's read quite a few of his novels tells me anyway) who thoroughly deserves to be knighted.
"If Britain doesn't withdraw the award, all Muslim countries should break off diplomatic relations."
Go for it
Yes, let's just piss off a bunch of deranged religious extremists. Nothing will happen, nope.
It's one thing to attempt to avoid offending them in their own lands. But when it is an internal matter of a modern, secular country, and they make these threats, then it time to bare our teeth, fix bayonets, and cry "Ut Veniant Omnes!"
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Indeed I'm all for stopping invading and overthrowing the governments of Islamic countries for no good reason but no way should we alter our domestic behaviour to suit uptight theists of any kind.
"If Britain doesn't withdraw the award, all Muslim countries should break off diplomatic relations."
Go for it
Yes, let's just piss off a bunch of deranged religious extremists. Nothing will happen, nope.
So, does your fiancee wear a burka?
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It's interesting that people freely condemn foreign governments and heads of state in places like Pakistan for insulting Islam, but no government in the west would ever issue a formal condemnation of Pakistan for insulting secularism despite its vastly superior record in governance. Of course, there are powerful forces in the west that hate secularism too; this doesn't help.
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This reminds me of a quote from Pitchfork Tillman, who was furious that redshirt sensibilities were being offended when Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to a White House dinner:
Pitchfork Tillman wrote:"The action of President Roosevelt in entertaining that nigger will necessitate our killing a thousand niggers in the South before they will learn their place again."
Of course he wasn't condoning lynchings, no siree!
So they oppose the idea of honouring someone who showed what a load of shit Islam the "religion of peace" is by threatening to blow themselves up in public places?
Logical disconnect much?
"You infidel! You say we're violent barbarians? I'll behead you for that!"
Admiral Valdemar wrote:So they oppose the idea of honouring someone who showed what a load of shit Islam the "religion of peace" is by threatening to blow themselves up in public places?
I don't even Rushdie was that direct. He just wrote a book (a fictional book no less) that portrayed Muhammad unflatteringly. For an analogy, look at Phillip Pullman's representations of the Catholic Church and god in his Golden Compass trilogy.
Admiral Valdemar wrote:So they oppose the idea of honouring someone who showed what a load of shit Islam the "religion of peace" is by threatening to blow themselves up in public places?
I don't even Rushdie was that direct. He just wrote a book (a fictional book no less) that portrayed Muhammad unflatteringly. For an analogy, look at Phillip Pullman's representations of the Catholic Church and god in his Golden Compass trilogy.
Yeah, but you know the fundies, they'll go at anything. Pullman suffered bad press just as Dan Brown has, and no doubt will again as the trilogy comes out in the cinema starting this Xmas.
What Rushdie and many others like him know is that the Koran is NOT a happy, joy filled, accepting book made out of marshmallow that some paint it as. It, like the Bible, is something that was written a few millennia ago for nomadic peasants and there it should have stayed.
