Long live Sir Salman, the scourge of murderous fanatics!

[Abdul Alhazred]

A great day for the UK and for liberty!

http://i10.tinypic.com/4mchekk.jpg

First story:

Rushdie knighted in honours list (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6756149.stm) (BBC)

Salman Rushdie, who went into hiding under threat of death after an Iranian fatwa, has been knighted by the Queen.

His book The Satanic Verses offended Muslims worldwide and a bounty was placed on his head in 1989.

But since the Indian-born author returned to public life in 1999, he has not shied away from controversy.

A devout secularist, he backed Commons Leader Jack Straw over comments on Muslim women and veils and has warned against Islamic "totalitarianism".

...

Follow up:

Iran condemns Rushdie knighthood (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6760927.stm) (BBC)

Iran has criticised the British government for its decision to give a knighthood to author Salman Rushdie.

His book The Satanic Verses offended Muslims worldwide and led to Iran issuing a fatwa in 1989, ordering Sir Salman's execution.

Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the decision to praise the "apostate" showed Islamophobia among British officials.

The UK Foreign Office said Sir Salman's honour was "richly deserved".

...

:clap:

[MelBrooksfan]

http://i10.tinypic.com/4mchekk.jpg

That is not a flattering photo.

[Diamond]

If I were British PM, I'd be making a diplomatic protest at Iran's threat to kill one of my citizens, and demanding to know who made any Iranian the arbiter of what a Briton may or may not believe.

[shemp]

An open letter to Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini:

Dear Mr. Hosseini:

Go F yourself with a pork chop.

Sincerely, Shemp

[Abdul Alhazred]

That is not a flattering photo.

It's the one the BBC used, and I was lazy.

[Abdul Alhazred]

An open letter to Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini:

Dear Mr. Hosseini:

Go F yourself with a pork chop.

Sincerely, Shemp

Fancy meeting you here.

Moved back to the old neighborhood I see. :D

[FarmallMTA]

If I were British PM, I'd be making a diplomatic protest at Iran's threat to kill one of my citizens, and demanding to know who made any Iranian the arbiter of what a Briton may or may not believe.

That's kind of a mushy response you're advocating. I'd applaud something a bit sterner in response to such cheekiness from the unwashed wogs. In the not to distant past Britain would have embarked the troops, set sail, and been blowing rajahs and mullahs from the mouths of cannon in short order. And then built churches and civilized the blighters.

Alas. The British have gone so soft nowadays.

[petra10]

I am not into all this queens honours rubbish but this is the best knighthood that has been bestowed for years.and yes that picture is a bit scary

[FarmallMTA]

But if the wogs had issued their fatwa for him being a disgustingly ugly toad of a man, I'd be a little more understanding.

Easy on criticism of the picture. There AREN'T any good pictures of the dude. He's a total mutt.

[Alareth]

I worked in a bookstore when the Satanic Verses came out. Several other stores in the area pulled the book off the shelves out of fear that people would be offended by it. We made a very prominent display of the book about 6 feet tall.

[Abdul Alhazred]

What is this talk of 'wogs'?

I seem to recall that Iranians were 'white' at least until 1979. ;)

[SteveGrenard]

Easy on criticism of the picture. There AREN'T any good pictures of the dude. He's a total mutt.

Here is a picture of him:

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s1i20460

This is one case it's difficult to know if this is a spoof or not.

[hodgy]

What is this talk of 'wogs'?

I seem to recall that Iranians were 'white' at least until 1979. ;)

Everyone East of Coventry or South of Worcester may be reasonably described as a WOG surely?

[corplinx]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Satanic_Verses_(novel)#Reception:_Timeline

Can someone tally a "Satanic Verses" bodycount?

[richardm]

Nice to see that nobody else has overreacted (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6763119.stm) to this news:


"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."


Good luck with that one.

[Darth Rotor]

Nice to see that nobody else has overreacted (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6763119.stm) to this news:

Good luck with that one.
Heck, the logical response to that is to bomb Pakistan unless they turn this terrorist supporter over to the UK. Any chance of that? :rolleyes:

I think the "Sir" for Salman was misguided, but I admit to holding a poor opinion of his writing. (No matter, I wasn't in a position to decide. :) )

The book wasn't that good. With that sample, Satanic Verses, which I gave away after I read it in 1990, I took Rushdie off of my "to read" list.

Is anyone a Rushdie fan? Is his other literary work of higher quality? Is there a collection of excellent essays I am missing?

DR

[tumnus]

I've always avoided his works (but hey that's because I love Larry Niven and stuff, so i can't criticize) but I actually ordered the paperback on amazon today because of all this kneejerk hooha.

I'm not overly bothered about Pakistan, when they lost the cricket to Ireland they all took to the streets burning the players in effigy. It then clicked in that its the standard form of protest. You numb to it after a while. Of course, if I'm the subject of the protest i'd be a little more alert...

[Puppycow]

Oops. Sorry. I started another thread on the same topic. I actually did look for the topic, but somehow overlooked it.

Tumnus: people actually have been killed over this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitoshi_Igarashi) so it's not just a big joke.

[Whiplash]

who made any Iranian the arbiter of what a Briton may or may not believe.

God of course.

[Darth Rotor]

God of course.
That's Allah to you, effendi. :cool:

DR

From Wiki's notes, something I had not realized:

Effendi was also considered a man of high education or social standing in an eastern Mediterranean or Arab country. It was a title of Turkish origin, analogous to Esquire, and junior to Bey in Egypt during the period of Muhammad Ali dynasty.[1][2]

[Abdul Alhazred]

Update:

Here's a little teaser from Mark Steyn's take on it.

ARISE, SIR SALMAN! (http://www.steynonline.com/content/view/345/30/)

...

Rushdie had not set out to offend Muslims. None of the London reviewers found anything controversial in the book. When British Muslims and their co-religionists around the world burnt copies of The Satanic Verses in the streets, BBC arts bores held innumerable discussions on the awful “symbolism” of this assault on “ideas.”

But it wasn’t symbolic at all. They burned the book because nothing else was at hand. If his wife and kid had swung by, they’d have gladly burned them instead. Overseas, they made do with translators and publishers. Rushdie’s precious lit. crit. crowd mostly opposed the fatwa on the grounds of artistic freedom rather than as a broader defence of Western pluralism. That was a mistake.

In the Fifties and Sixties, Nasserism attempted to import Soviet socialism to the Middle East. It never really took. A generation later, the Ayatollah came up with a better wheeze: Export Islamism to a culturally defeatist West. Everything that has become pathetically familiar to us since September 11th was present in the Rushdie affair.

...

[Abdul Alhazred]

And another:

This one is from The Spectator, so you'll have to save the document if you want to see the whole thing after next Wednesday.

No one deserves a knighthood more (http://www.spectator.co.uk/printer-friendly/32542/no-one-deserves-a-knighthood-more.thtml)

...

Rushdie is loathed — and not just by the mediaevally minded bigots of Islamabad, Tehran and the Finsbury Park mosque. He seems to be loathed by everyone else, too. No sooner had his knighthood been announced than the British Right waded into attack. They hate Rushdie because he has dared, from time to time, to cast doubt upon the righteousness of Britain’s imperial history, been a bit snide about the monarchy and occasionally remarked that our society was not always what is is cracked up to be. Can he not show gratitude, asked the Daily Mail’s Peter McKay in a column of magnificently ignorant bile. We give him expensive police protection when the mad mullahs order his death and he repays us by continuing to speak his mind. Beneath all this is the usually unspoken intimation of racism: Salman — well, he’s a darkie, isn’t he? A chippy little wog. Comes from Bombay or Mumbai or somewhere ghastly like that. You’d think he’d feel even more beholden to his adopted country (or his once adopted country) and less inclined to stick the boot in. You can’t trust them, can you? There is a strand of thought on the right which holds that immigrants — be they second, third or fourth generation — should simply shut up and mind their ps and qs.

The British Left hates him, if anything, even more. It has long carried a torch for Islam, despite the misogyny, homophobia and authoritarian impulses of the ideology — a political mispositioning occasioned, first and foremost, by the doctrine of multiculturalism. Also, Rushdie is not quite yer bona fide leftie, is he? He’s been a bit gung-ho about the war against Iraq and accused the Left of an infantile, reflexive anti-Americanism. And if the Left can’t get him for that, then they can always get him for having accepted the award and expressing himself to be humbled by it. Some Cambridge academic called Priyamvada Gopal (who he? — ed.) took a swipe on both of these grounds in, natch, the Guardian. The honour is a reward for Rushdie having divested himself of his old anti-establishment credentials, for having cosied up to the government.

...

Interesting about the hostility from the British "Right".

Yes, Rushdie is a socialist. There's some of that in The Satanic Verses, too. And atheism. And one side story making fun of American creationists.

But I don't think the American "Right" particularly holds it against him, or did in 1980.

It must be the wog factor. Because being just another lefty novelist doesn't explain it.