UK says 'sorry', but defends Rushdie's knighthood

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said on Wednesday that Britain was 'sorry' if people were upset over writer Salman Rushdie's knighthood, but insisted it was awarded for his entire literary career.
"Obviously, we are sorry if there are people who have taken very much to heart this honour, which is after all for a lifelong body of literary work," she said, after protests in the Muslim world over the award.
She stressed that Rushdie was just one of many Muslims who had been recognised by the British honours system - something, saying: "may not be realised by many of those who have been vocal in their opposition."
"People who are members of the Muslim faith are very much part of our whole, wider community... they receive honours in this country in just the same way as any other citizen."
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari asked to comment on the Rushdie row during a joint press conference with Beckett in London, said he thought it was 'untimely.' "As for my government, in fact, we share the views of many Muslims - Iraq is a Muslim country - but we believe that with all due respect to the knighthood, I think it was untimely. This is our view."
"I don't have any official position from my government on this issue, but I think it could be used by many quarters to exploit this issue outside its context," he told reporters.
She was speaking shortly after another minister, Home Secretary John Reid, said Britain will not apologise for giving writer Salman Rushdie a knighthood. "We have very strong laws about promoting racial intolerance. It isn't a free-for-all. We've thought very carefully about it," he said.
"But we have a right to express opinions and a tolerance of other people's point of view, and we don't apologise for that." His comments came a day after Britain's Foreign Office voiced 'deep concern' after a Pakistani minister said that the Rushdie award could justify suicide bombings. Britain's interior minister John Reid said the right to free speech was "of over-riding political value," while foreign minister Margaret Beckett called the award by Queen Elizabeth part of a trend of honouring Muslims in the British community. Home Secretary Reid, answering a question after a lecture in New York, said that there were also films, which had been considered offensive to Christians and Jews.
"We have to be sensitive to the views of people of religion, people who have very strong views," he said. "But I think that we all appreciate that in the long run our protection of the right to express your views in literature, argument, politics, is of over-riding political value to our societies," Reid said.