Sir Salman Rushdie 2.0
I wrote here that
I’m sure that the FCO and Cabinet Office would have considered the impact that this knighthood would have
and it turns out I’m completely wrong, as the Guardian reports:
It emerged today that the government arts committee that recommended the knighthood did not discuss any possible political ramifications, and reportedly never imagined that the award would provoke the furious response that it has done in parts of the Muslim world.
The one good thing about this apparent, er, oversight is that it kicks the stool from under those in Iran who that this was a calculated insult to them - it wasn’t calculated at all.
What role should politics play in awards, honours and decorations? Should we be able to recognise the great if not necessarily good - as in the Nobel Peace Prizes that went to Henry Kissinger, Mikhail Gorbachev and Yasser Arafat? While I am prepared to accept that good came of Gorbachev, for instance, I’m not sure at all that it was deliberate, given that he wanted to open communism enough to guarantee its survival. I’m not sure I agree with sport being ‘beyond politics’ - viz., the South African sports boycott - and so the same applies here. Ultimately, for literary accolades at least, the determination should be done on the basis of someone’s writing.
Does anyone know what awards Iran gives out and who has received them?
xD.
June 21st, 2007 at 3:05 am
Good one, of course the very peaceful Muslims are justified for destroying the whole world over this. What? The Queen can’t Knight someone she likes? She can’t knight someone that other people don’t like?
But I’m sure Sir Rushdie has mixed emotions on this; the Queen has put him in much greater danger. Maybe he’ll wish he had turned it down.
At least this incident will lose the terrorists even more of their dhimmidiot appeasers.
Islam in it’s extreme is more political ideology than religion. It is only a ‘Religion of Peace’ in that when Islam rules the planet, there will be no one to be at war with. Where they are given an inch, they demand a mile. Islamic countries are becoming more extreme, extremists rule, they just keep quoting the Koran to justify their Jihad.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
always believe in books
of course if it is in print
then you know it must be true
.
June 21st, 2007 at 12:58 pm
I’m not sure what you mean.
“Islam in it’s extreme is more political ideology than religion”
Many religions have a political element in that they inform how their adherents act politically. Saying that only Islam has this attribute is just wrong - look at Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Hinduism in India, Christianity in the US and so on. You could equally argue that some political ideologies become religions - any form of communism that relies on or creates a cult of an invidivual or, equally, Nazism.
“It is only a ‘Religion of Peace’ in that when Islam rules the planet, there will be no one to be at war with”
Rubbish. You could make similar, groundless charges against any religion and you could say that Islam engages in an amount of realpolitik in setting down codes of conduct for war. Equally, the sometimes-bloody conflicts within Islam give the lie to what you say. There are also Muslim countries that are broadly at peace - Turkey, for instance.
“Islamic countries are becoming more extreme, extremists rule, they just keep quoting the Koran to justify their Jihad.”
Would you care to justify that? You have made an assertion, not an argument. Politicians quote the Bible to justify their beliefs, and I’m sure the same applies to other religions.
I think throughout you are mistaking Islam to be a single entity. Far beyond the division between Sunni and Shia, there are shades of adherence to Islam. I know quite a few Muslims who could be described as ‘culturally Muslim’ - that is to say, some life events take place within the context of Islam - births, deaths, marriages - and that Islam informs some of their attitudes, but to the same extent that a lot of people in the UK could be described as culturally Christian but not believing or practising.
One last thing:
“absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
always believe in books
of course if it is in print
then you know it must be true”
Does that not apply to what you’ve written?
Thanks for posting - would like to hear your responses!
xD.