Iran condemns Britain over Rushdie knighthood
 

Iran condemns Britain over Rushdie knighthood
Says award is an insult to Islam

So, Britain finally gets a spine when it comes to Islam... now, apply it to the schools please.

The thread I posted this in died pretty soon after I responded, so you may not have seen it. Basically I was questioning your assumption that British schools refused to teach anything about the Holocaust from fear of offending Muslims.

In fact, here is Snopes on the subject. I can't seem to cut & paste from there but it basically confirms what I wrote above - there was only ONE case, ONE school that removed Holocaust teaching from its history curriculum.

The Satanic Verses is a great book.

It's title is misleading in the same way that the Grateful Dead would appear to be a hard rock band (the skeletons, etc.) ...

Even if Rushdie did write a good book, and that the subject matter put his life at risk, I don't quite get the relevance of bestowing him a knighthood. But then the whole honours programme can leave you scratching your head wondering in too many instances...

If I were a British subject, you fuckers would totally knight me. :)

CF - he's been knighted for his lifetime contribution to literature - don't fall into the trap of believing a furore nearly 20 years ago is the reason for his knighthood. Although I agree with you it seems random sometimes. I'd far rather see Sir Ian Hislop :)

[Not CF]Crikey me - it wasn't even the same Government, unless the Iranians believe the Queen has held a grudge against Islam all this time and has finally revealed her Islamophobia in a topical and dazzling display.
Because once a knight's enough?

Ahh, they only knighted him because he appeared on the Colbert Report and they didn't want to seem like they were behind the times.

There is no such thing as too much Sycamore. :)

This is a Fuck You over the whole kidnapping their soldiers deal.
A good one too, smart.

There are a lot of other people who've been knighted for contribution to the arts. Sir Elton John for one. The list is long.

Knighthoods aren't very special really.

You'd be better off with an Order of Australia. ;)

Once and for all, British schools are not pandering to Moslem sensibilities in their teaching. One school, in which a teacher felt unable to tackle a contentious issue was used as an example of how not to approach the teaching of history. It was mentioned in a report which was penned to offer schools best practice advice on History teaching: included within that report were examples of potential pitfalls and potential solutions, along with examples of good practice and examples of poor practice.

thats pretty dumb, it's funny how everyone assumes all Muslims hate Jews and vice versa. The only instance of real turmoil is the whole Palestine / Isreal cluster-fuck and thats over land not religion.

if they wanted to be smart about it they would have issued the fuck you to iran and it's 65 million people directly and not the Islamic world and it's 1.3 billion followers.

This has nothing to do with any kidnapped soldiers.

Salman Rushdi is a highly respected writer. He has been honoured for his services to writing and culture. The honours list often includes such literary figures.

What would be entirely unacceptable, would be if we debarred someone who is considered to be a literary giant, from receiving such an honour on the grounds that his books offended a faith.

I'd be the first to admit that there is a problem in this country with Islamophobia......but this is nothing to do with that.

Apparently, some folks in Pakistan are none too happy with Rushdie's knighthood as well...from the BBC: The UK's envoy to Pakistan has expressed "deep concern" over comments by a Pakistani minister about Sir Salman Rushdie's knighthood.

Religious Affairs Minister Mohammad Ejaz ul-Haq had said the honour meant a risk of suicide attacks because Muslims believed Sir Salman had insulted Islam.

But High Commissioner Robert Brinkley said it was untrue that the knighthood was intended to insult Islam.

Sir Salman's book The Satanic Verses in 1989 sparked protests around the world.