The Satanic Verses controversy country has not forgotten the vow to kill him. He was also quoted saying, "It's reached the point where it's a piece of rhetoric rather than a real threat". One of the immediate consequences of the fatwa was a worsening of Islamic-Western relations. Rushdie lamented that the controversy fed the Western stereotype of "the backward, cruel, rigid Muslim, burning books and threatening to kill the blasphemer", while another British writer compared the Ayatollah Khomeini "with a familiar ghost from the past – one of those villainous Muslim clerics, a Faqir of Ipi or a mad Mullah, who used to be
Knighthood of Salman Rushdie urge and plead with all Muslims around the world to remain calm." He also stated his belief that Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" was also an insult to Christianity and had put "Her Majesty the Queen in a very difficult position". "Actually I was appalled to hear that Salman Rushdie had been given a knighthood, particularly when this man has been very divisive. This man – as you can see – not only provoked violence around the world because of his writings, but there were many people that were killed around the world and honouring the man who has blood on