Here we go again - Pakistan condemns Salman Rushdie's knighthood

[edam]

Just feel exasperated. A. none of their damn business who we give knighthoods to (not that I'm in favour of knighthoods or indeed Salman bloody Rushdie) and B. why can't these extremists understand that free speech is as important to western liberal democracies as respect for the Prophet is to them?

Oh, and C. why did the presenter on Radio Four not ask the Pakistani big wig they were interviewing whether he had ever read the damn book? Also failed to ask the British muslim peer who was attacking the knighthood the same question.

[grumpy emoticon]

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6763119.stm

In English, Edam?

Aloha - You seem to be confusing Islam & Muslims. PLease do not judge Islam by its followers. I am all for questionning Islam (and other religions) but this should be done by looking at the religious texts not people's subjective, cultural & often incorrect interpretations of them.

Death for apostacy is Islamic though.

Compared to the Bible, Islam is a form of Buddhist veganism.
Although President Barlet is of course fictional, I believe all the quotes from the Bible are accurate:

BARTLET: I like your show. I like how you call homosexuality an ?abomination!?

JACOBS: I don?t say homosexuality is an abomination, Mr. President. The Bible does.

BARTLET: Yes it does. Leviticus!

JACOBS: 18:22.

BARTLET: Chapter and verse. I wanted to ask you a couple of questions while I had you here. I wanted to sell my youngest daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She?s a Georgetown Sophomore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table when it was her turn. What would a good price for her be?

(Bartlet only waits a second for a response, then plunges on.)

BARTLET: While thinking about that, can I ask another? My chief of staff, Leo McGary, insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself? Or is it okay to call the police?

(Bartlet barely pauses to take a breath.)

BARTLET: Here?s one that?s really important, because we?ve got a lot of sports fans in this town. Touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean. Leviticus 11:7. If they promise to wear gloves, can the Washington Redskins still play football? Can Notre Dame? Can West Point? Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother John for planting different crops side by side?

Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads? Think about those questions, would you?

(The camera pushes in on the president.)

One last thing. While you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the Ignorant Tight-Ass Club, in this building when the president stands, nobody sits.

(Jacobs sees that, in fact, the president is standing and she is the only one in the room sitting. After a moment, she rises, holding her tiny plate of appetizers.

Shame was a brilliant book

Rushdie was definitely one of the major magical realist writers in English. And wasn't he the first really big, important, big-selling English-language author from an Indian background? A trailblazer for other writers from non-traditional backgrounds?

Whatever you think of him, his books were important and influential long before the Satanic Verses hoo-ha, and I think it's right that writers as much as footballers and actors, get honours as long as the stupid old honours system exists.

Actually the text and the founder bothers me a LOT more than most of the followers. They are largely just regular folks, the text is apartheid and fascism rolled into one (just put 'women' instead of 'black people') and of course, Mohammed is just appalling.

I'm not arguing about honours for writers, was just stunned at the idea that Rushdie was somehow responsible for magical realism.

Angela Carter got there first.

Hmm, wouldn't say he was responsible for it, but he was certainly one of the major British writers engaging with magical realism, wasn't he?

I thought he did it jolly well, I really loved his early stuff. Love Angela Carter too, but she's not British so can't be honoured (although Terry Wogan and Bob Geldof were...)

Carter was British (Sussex born) but is also dead, so can't be honoured for that reason.

Was she really? I thought she was Canadian.

Forgot she was dead. I've got to that age where I'm always surprised to find people are dead. Mind you, am always staggered to find that Bruce Forsythe is still alive and tapping his way across our TV sets in some silly BBC ballroom dancing show.

ar eyou thinking of MArgaret Atwood?
she's Canadian.

Oh yes I am

See, I have got to that age.

Oh yes I remember now, I like Margaret Atwood but couldn't cope with Angela Carter

Thankyou vicious. In English. And I said one of the first, not the first.

We're digressing a bit from the OP anyhow.

Ah well, that's mumsnet for you

Yes am still irritated by mad Pakistani ambassador or foreign minister or whoever it was

How very different from dear Alistair Campbell, who has just been quoted on the radio on that insufferably smug programme Quote Unquote

"Sorry, we don't do God"

Anyone who can make Ali Campbell look morally healthy is in a bad way

I just love the way that ambassadors get 'summoned' when there's a bit of a tiff. As if they are going to see the head teacher!