Satan's knighthood

Salman Rushdie is decidedly the most hated person in the Muslim world. He has earned this infamy for the Satanic Verses he wrote in the 80's, which had caused immense pain to Muslims all over the globe. But over the years he was slowly disappearing from the radar - till last week when he was awarded knighthood in Queen Elizabeth's 81st Birthday Honours for his "service to literature".
What kind of literature that was that it so deeply hurt millions of Muslims all over the world? The question has been raised even in the British media as to why the Honours Committee "saw it fit to ennoble Rushdie except that Tony Blair on his way out of the Downing Street wants to put two fingers up to Iran, as well as extremist Islam everywhere".
Reaction to this mindless act on the part of the British government has been sharp and spontaneous. Commenting on the conferment of knighthood on the condemned Rushdie, Pakistan foreign office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said it was "insensitive" on the part of Britain and Pakistan would convey it to the British government. The National Assembly passed a unanimous resolution condemning the award and asked the British government to withdraw the title in order to assuage Muslim anger.
There were some demonstrations where the Queen's effigy was burnt, and more such protests are expected in the coming days. Similar reaction has been witnessed in Iran and there is no reason why the British action would not be condemned by governments and people in other Muslim countries.
Alas, the British government has defended its action of conferring the country's highest honour on someone whose only accomplishment is a work that hurt the feelings of no less than one-fourth of humanity. The question is: if Rushdie can be honoured for his Satanic Verses why not Adolf Hitler whose Mein Kampf was no less vicious?
Add to this the British foreign office's insolent one-liner that the honour was "richly deserved" and the reasons for it were "self-explanatory", and one would get some idea as to how intolerant and insensitive Tony Blair's Britain has turned out to be. No wonder Tehran has accused the British government of Islamophobia.
We are extremely disappointed at this show of double-standards: While London has been a popular venue of inter-faith harmony seminars, it seems to be also the nursery of hate-breeding demons like Salman Rushdie. His so-called literary work has contributed nothing but hatred between man and man. Indeed, he is the true agent for the much-feared 'clash of civilisations'.
Earlier, he had won a 'fatwa' only against his person, but this scandalous knighthood would make so many lives insecure. Though federal minister Ijazul Haq later on withdrew his statement, he was not widely off the mark when he told the National Assembly on Monday evening that Rushdie would tempt many a suicide bomber to target him.
Rushdie's knighthood tends to taint the very concept of receiving British government awards. Surely, all the Muslim recipients, and they are many in Britain and its former colonies, would seriously think whether they would like to keep them or disown them.