UK News
Britain defends Rushdie knighthood as criticism grows (2nd Roundup)
Jun 20, 2007, 19:47 GMT
London - British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett Wednesday defended the controversial knighthood for author Salman Rushdie but said she was 'sorry' if the award had caused offence.
'Obviously, we are sorry if there are people who have taken very much to heart this honour, which is after all for a life-long body of literary work,' Beckett told journalists in London.
However, Beckett stressed that Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, was 'one of many Muslims' given awards under the British honours system.
She was speaking at a joint news conference in London with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, who criticized the award for Rushdie as 'untimely.'
Zebari stressed that he was expressing his personal view.
'I don't have any official position from my government on this issue, but I think it would be used by many quarters to exploit this issue outside this country,' he said.
Iraq, as a Muslim country, shared the 'views of many Muslims,' he added.
The knighthood, proposed by the Labour government and to be awarded by Queen Elizabeth II, has sparked an angry response in Pakistan, Iran, Malaysia and other parts of the Muslim world.
Beckett's Foreign Office has been involved in a diplomatic spat with Pakistan over the Rushdie affair, after a Pakistani minister was reported as having said that the honour could be seen by some Muslims as justifying suicide bombings.
Meanwhile, Britain's Home Secretary, John Reid, told an audience in New York Wednesday that the British government stood by the honour and would not 'apologize' for it.
Indian-born Rushdie, who is a British citizen, enraged opinion in the Muslim world with his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, which was considered blasphemous against Islam by Iran and made him the subject of a fatwa (death sentence) by the late Ayatollah Khomenei.
Rushdie, 60, has said he was 'thrilled and humbled' by the honour, but has otherwise kept a low profile since the row erupted last weekend.
In Tehran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the British ambassador, Geoffrey Adams, over the knighting, the Fars news agency reported Wednesday.
The ambassador was told that the move was regarded by Tehran as a 'provocative act' which angered one and a half billion Muslims worldwide.
However, the British ambassador insisted that the honour was given for Rushdie's services for literature and should therefore not be regarded as insult.
Diplomatic protests have also been exchanged between Britain and Pakistan, after Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, Pakistan's minister for religious affairs, was reported as having said that the honour for Rushdie could be seen by some Muslims as justifying suicide attacks.
Britain's ambassador to Pakistan, Robert Brinkley, has expressed 'deep concern' at the minister's comments while also insisting that the honour was not meant to offend Muslims.
Pakistan's National Assembly has demanded that Britain withdraw the honour, while unanimously adopting a resolution condemning the knighthood as 'an insult to the religious sentiments of Muslims.'
But Reid, while conceding that the issue was 'sensitive,' ruled out an apology by the British government, saying that the protection of people's right to express their opinions in literature, argument and politics was 'of over-riding value to our society.'
'I think we have a set of values that accrues people honours for their contribution to literature even when they don't agree with our point of view. That's our way and that's what we stand by,' said Reid.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
It will explain to all the readers, that there are four essential evils on this plannet,
UK...top most
RUSHDIE....next in line
OSAMA BIN LADEN...after them two
SATAN/ LUCIFER...least of all four.
Oh, by all means, let's appease the Religion of Peace!! How DARE someone villified by the virtuous, loving, and god-blessed people of islam be honored!! We should immediately torutre and kill this blasphemous man in the name of the heaven-seeking adherents of the great, wonderful, Religion of Peace. Feh.
The man-god worshippers should worship another man, may be rushdie this tiome , he is another son of B, just like most of the westerners.
I am puzzled as to why Rushdie was knighted, (we must be scraping the bottom of the barrel) and I can understand that Islamic people are upset. However, if you take a wide view of everything Nulabour has done you will realise that they are the biggest bunch of wankers ever to hold office in this once great but now ruined nation. You can safely bet that if Nulabour make any decisions they will be wrong. They have ruined everything they have meddled with.
That said, Pakistan and any other Muslim nation can follow their religion and revert back to the stone age for all I care. Seems odd though, so many Muslims want to live in UK - I wonder why? Could it be something to do with freedom / education / equal rights for both sexes / tolerance / State hand - outs / housing / NHS / appeasement / Human rights etc. etc.
One time I wanted a visa for UK, and I had to tell the Brittis counsellor, it would be crazy on my part to go live in another dying nation.
WHO HAS FREEDOM IN UK...THE RUSSIAN EX SPY?
DIANA?
OR OTHER VICTIMS OF ROYAL MURDERS?
IT IS purely to share the wealth of colonist britton, which has, is and will be sucking blood of poorer nations.
Salman Rushdie is a parasite on the UK taxpayer. He is a multi- millionaire, obviously a Muslim or a heretic to that faith, he costs the UK £10 per year to protect him from the people he has offended and now for no reason whatsoever ( God almighty, he has only written a few obnoxious books that nobody reads ) he GETS A BLOODY KNIGHTHOOD !!! WHAT FOR ??
The sooner our Muslim brotherhood kill this scumbag the better for all of us.
If a FATWA means anything at all, then for heavens sake carry it out.
His crap has gotten too much attention, he is not worth a penny. It is Tony B-liar's attempt to upset Muslims. His anti-Muslim feelings can be judged by this very recommendation. He is being sacked from UK government, so he decided to get to some people.
BUT SATAN LOVES SATANS, INCLUDING B-LIAR, QUEEN BETTY AND RUSHDIE
To Bob ; 20th June.
Bob, you`ve stated a perfect summary of this Rushdie affair and I love your reasons given for our Muslim Hate-the-UK friends being here in this dreadful white-mans land in the West.
Instead of living in poverty and squalor in their own filthy and disease-ridden countries, they are permitted to come here in their millions without any medical checks or work permits to completely destroy our English heritage and threaten our medical standards. The country is no longer Britain, but a HUGE refugee camp for the world`s flotsam, funded by us. Yes, and we import with this mass of foreigners and their UK-born off-spring, all the irresponsible attitudes which they have to maintaining law and order in their own civilisations, which is practically none at all.
They may hate us, but they LOVE all those generous soft-hearted Western benefits you quote, given by a hand-out Government to just about anybody who asks. You don`t have to earn these benefits like we true Brits have, you just need to be an INVITED immigrant or even an illegal immigrant and the pot of gold is yours - all paid by us, the great British taxpayers. The cost to the taxpayer of keeping these people in relative luxury and health must be many £ billions, whilst the NHS is completely saturated with foreigners getting free medical treatment they never ever would have had in their own countries. Again costing £ billions to the taxpayer.
As a postscript to the last letter. It would be more acceptable to the homogeneous population if the UK had committed social suicide by opening the flood gates to our fellow Europeans under the EU regulations for the movement of labour within the member countries.
But what have we in the UK ? Millions of niggers from Africa or the West Indies plus millions of Asians from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan or other non-compatible European culture countries. This includes that parasite and Islamic heretic Salman Rushdie, who has cost the UK taxpayer $23 M so far in protecting his divine person from being harmed by the Muslim`s who have placed a death Fatwa on him and a total bounty of $3 M so far on his despicable head.
If any devoted Muslim wishes to claim this prize money, look towards Manhattan New York where he has been kept in extreme luxury for 10 years, laughing at you.
You found the Twin Towers without any trouble and killed 3,000 innocent people whilst crippling 5,000 others, now find HIM. He is one of your own, now devote the resources you have for killing 10,000`s of innocent people throughout the world to eliminating him.
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SIR OSAMA BIN LADENJun 20th, 2007 - 21:07:30
As much as I hate this person as terrorist, same as much, or may be a bit more I hate UK, worse evil on the face of this plannet, than satan himself.
I THINK IT WILL EQUATE THEIR EVILHOOD IF I BESTOW THE TITLE OF BRITTISH KNIGHTHOOD TO SIR OSAMA BIN LADEN.
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