Thursday, June 21, 2007
SIR OSAMA
Conflict escalates in the Great Knighthood Battle of ’07:
A hard-line Pakistani parliamentarian and head of a religious political party on Wednesday demanded a “sir” title for Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist network, in retaliation for Britain knighting author Salman Rushdie.
"Muslims should confer the ‘sir’ title and all other awards on bin Laden and Mullah Omar in reply to Britain’s shameful decision to knight Rushdie,” Sami ul Haq, leader of the pro-Taliban Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, said in a statement.
Restraint is needed at this point; otherwise Britain will simply respond by knighting Iain Dale or Harry Hutton, then Muslims would knight some random guys in Tehran, and suddenly it’s knights everywhere, with maybe a few squires and liege lords as well. Totally unacceptable. Trembly Brits are already spooked by the mere knighting of Rushdie:
I was astonished when I heard he had been knighted.
I’m not a Muslim, in fact I’m agnostic but his book caused such problems and giving him a knighthood may well encourage the terrorists to go a step further in their plot to kill as many innocent people as possible.
Salman Rushdie got his financial reward but why put innocent people’s lives at risk?
ADELE LEAN, LONDON, UK
At least she calls them terrorists. As often happens during these “outrages” – be they over cartoons, papal comments, or Sir Salman - a moderate Muslim makes the most sense:
I am so, so, so sick and tired of insecure, scared and apparently “ultra-sensitive” Muslims being “insulted” at the slightest, most innocuous gesture.
Mr. Rushdie’s award is an award for Mr. Rushdie. I fail to see how it is an insult to Islam and that it shows “Islamophobia”. Such great leaps of logic!
I am a Muslim, but I am quite sure that all these very, very angry Muslims around the world haven’t even seen a copy of the Satanic Verses, or any of Mr. Rushdie’s other works, let alone read and understand them.
A JAMALUDIN, KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA