Knighthood of Salman Rushdie government's attempts to secularize Muslims and reward apostates. Rushdie is a hate figure across the Muslim world. This honour will have ramifications here and across the world. The awards pass across his (Blair's) desk and he could easily have blocked it, knowing it would offend Muslims everywhere." He pointed to the protests in Iran, Pakistan, and Malaysia as proof that the outcry was growing. Another protestor told reporters "We've come to demonstrate against the apostate Salman Rushdie. He has insulted Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. Salman Rushdie is the devil. We have a responsibility – he should be punished, he
The Satanic Verses controversy moved away from a crime against God and toward something more temporal. Today we are concerned for our pain and sometimes, for other people's. Blasphemy has become an offence against the faithful – in much the same way as pornography is an offence against the innocent and the virtuous. Given this meaning, blasphemy is an ecumenical crime and so it is not surprising ... that Christians and Jews should join Muslims in calling Salman Rushdie's [book] a blasphemous book. Some rabbis, such as Immanuel Jakobovits, chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, opposed the book's publication. The