Salman Rushdie’s Knighthood

From the San Francisco Gate comes a brief article offering a quote from Pakistan’s religious affairs minister:

“If someone exploded a bomb on [Salman Rushdie’s] body, he would be right to do so unless the British government apologizes and withdraws the ‘sir’ title.”

The International Herald Tribune reports that the protests and burning of effigies has spread from Iran and Pakistan to Malaysia:

“Supporters of Malaysia’s hard-line Islamic party protested near the British Embassy, chanting ‘Destroy Salman Rushdie’ and ‘Destroy Britain.'”

And now the Guardian has an article questioning why Rushdie accepted the honor at all, given that he’s ditched the Brits for New York. And another article on why Britain would choose to knight Rushdie, since he’s spent so much of his literary career mercilessly satirizing Britain.

The Guardian also reported today that “The committee that recommended Salman Rushdie for a knighthood did not discuss any possible political ramifications and never imagined that the award would provoke the furious response that it has done in parts of the Muslim world.” In the same article, it appears that “Rushdie was celebrating his 60th birthday in London yesterday and is not commenting on the latest threats to his life. It is understood he is anxious not to inflame the situation.” I can’t help at laugh at that last line – such British understatement. Well, yes, if you spent a decade of your life in hiding, in fear of constant attack, and finally were able to come out in public only to have the old hatred flare up again, you’d try not to inflame the situation, too. In other words, he doesn’t want to have to duck into a closet for the next decade.

There’s not much he can do not to inflame the situation, however. Or rather, Muslims have a way of inflaming the situation on their own very onhealthy pharmacy online well, thank you. In addition to the $150,000 reward for killing Rushdie that formerly existed, the bounty has been upped by “The Organisation To Commemorate The Martyrs Of The Muslim World,” who promises 80,000 pounds to anyone who kills “the apostate.”

Of course, if you’d like the Muslim side of things, check out the statement issued by Islamic Republic News Agency, who reports, “Rushdie was disgraced with writing a blasphemous novel, “The Satanic Verses”, at which the Muslims across the world expressed outrage in 1988 and scores of them were killed in numerous protests in India and elsewhere.” Funny – although I would assume the responsibility for the deaths would actually fall on those who rioted, I suppose according to Islamic calculation it’s somehow Rushdie’s fault.

Mrs. BookFox is British, and visits on a yearly basis, and when I explained to her the situation, she bought up the practical side: it was stupid for them to knight him, because given the number of Muslims in Britain (as well as around the world) it was bound to incite violence. She was thinking, most likely, of her family, many of whom live near London, and obviously she doesn’t want to see an increase in terrorists attacks. But I took the ideological stance: that his contribution to letters deserves a knighthood, that he’s been shunned by the establishment for far too long because he’s such a lightening rod between the Western and Islamic world, and that Britain should not cower in the shadow of a culture that responds like a temper-tantrum throwing child whenever something doesn’t go their way (remember the Danish cartoons?). Despite the practical reasons why it might have been prudent for Britain to withhold a knighting, it was an honorable move, and one that doesn’t kowtow to the frothing-at-the-mouth extremists.