At least the latest tantrums from the Muslim world about Salman Rushdie's knighthood should demonstrate to those who persist in thinking that all the suicide bombings, 9/11, 7/7, Madrid, Bali, are understandable reactions to Western provocation that, really, no, we're dealing with a violent pathology here which feeds off a childish sense of grievance, and any controversy, no matter how petty, from Danish cartoons to this latest farce, will be milked for maximum effect.
Hardliners in Iran revived calls for his murder yesterday. Mehdi Kuchakzadeh, a Tehran MP, declared: “Rushdie died the moment the late Imam [Ayatollah Khomeini] issued the fatwa.”The Organisation to Commemorate Martyrs of the Muslim World, a fringe hardline group, offered a reward of $150,000 (£75,000) to any successful assassin.
Forouz Rajaefar, the group’s secretary general, said: “The British and the supporters of the anti-Islam Salman Rushdie could rest assured that the writer’s nightmare will not end until the moment of his death and we will bestow kisses on the hands of whomsoever is able to execute this apostate.”
Effigies of Rushdie and the Queen were burnt in Pakistan, where presidential elections at the end of the year have destablised an already volatile political climate. Hundreds of protesters in Multan, Karachi and Lahore set fire to British flags and chanted “Death to Britain, death to Rushdie” and Islamist leaders called for nationwide protests after Friday prayers.
Ijaz-ul-Haq, the Religious Affairs Minister, told the assembly in Islamabad that the award of the knighthood excused suicide bombing. “If somebody has to attack by strapping bombs to his body to protect the honour of the Prophet then it is justified,” he said.
He later retracted his statement, explaining that he had intended to say that knighting Rushdie will foster extremism [!]. “If someone blows himself up, he will consider himself justified. How can we fight terrorism when those who commit blasphemy are rewarded by the West? We demand an apology by the British government. Their action has hurt the sentiments of 1.5 billion Muslims."
Pakistan’s national assembly earlier unanimously passed a resolution condemning Rushdie’s knighthood, which it said would encourage “contempt” for the Prophet Muhammad.
How can we fight terrorism when those who commit blasphemy are rewarded by the West? I don't know where to start with that one.
Update: but David Thompson has a go.
They blow up their own mosques - give me a break!
Posted by: Vagabondblogger | June 19, 2007 at 02:37 PM
I suspect that they blow up each others mosques. Quite a difference.
Posted by: dearieme | June 19, 2007 at 05:34 PM
Just a matter of semantics - a mosque, is a mosque, is a mosque, just as a church is a church and a temple, a temple. How can writing fiction be more sacreligious than blowing up a house of god of one of your brothers? Many Muslims worship together in the same mosques whether they be Shiite or Suuni - the seperation is more pronounced in Iraq, than elsewhere in the Muslim world. Regardless, if they lived in that neighborhood, most likely they once prayed at the "local" mosque.
Posted by: Vagabondblogger | June 21, 2007 at 11:22 PM