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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Rushdie honour insults Islam, Iran says
2007-06-18
Iran accused Britain yesterday of insulting Islam by awarding a knighthood to Salman Rushdie, whose novel The Satanic Verses prompted the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa calling for his assassination.

Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry, portrayed the decision to honour the novelist as an orchestrated act of aggression directed against Islamic societies, describing Rushdie as "one of the most hated figures" in the Islamic world. "Honouring and commending an apostate and hated figure will definitely put the British officials [in a position] of confrontation with Islamic societies," he said. "This act shows that insulting Islamic sacred [values] is not accidental. It is planned, organised, guided and supported by some western countries."
To tell the truth, we do insult you. We dunnit and we're glad!
The Islamic republic's government formally distanced itself in 1998 from the original fatwa against Rushdie, issued in 1989 by Khomeini, who said the book committed blasphemy against Islam. But shortly after it disavowed the death edict under a deal with Britain, the Iranian media said three Iranian clerics had called on followers to kill Rushdie, saying the fatwa was irrevocable and that it was the duty of Muslims to carry it out.

Rushdie was the most high-profile of the 946 people honoured in the Queen's birthday list, drawn from nominations by the public or expert organisations. A spokesman for the Foreign Office said the honour was "richly deserved" and the reasons for it were "self-explanatory".

Mr Hosseini added: "Giving a badge to one of the most hated figures in Islamic society is ... an obvious example of fighting against Islam by high-ranking British officials."

In a statement following the announcement of his knighthood on Saturday, Rushdie, 59, said he was "thrilled and humbled to receive this great honour". Literary supporters said the decision to include the novelist among 21 knighthoods was overdue, claiming the British establishment had for many years been reluctant to be associated with the controversial figure.
Posted by:Steve White

#27  the threats to Rushdie are an interesting problem to our lefties... on the one hand Rushdie is a leftie who was frequently an apologist for the commies and an apologist for the Paleos, etc.

on the other hand the islamofascists, the current leftie heros hate him

well when it comes to choosing between loyalty to old friends and to the fashionable new heros, I think they'll line up with the Islamofascists
Posted by: mhw   2007-06-18 20:28  

#26  Thank you, Z... given some exasperated indignation, some concentrated running-time (or stuck at the traffic-light commute time) and about a glass and a half of cheap chablis I can come up with some very vivid phrases.

I am wondering today how many hours it will be for the usual suspects to start whanging away on us about picking up the poor, persecured Palestinians, kissing their owies and promising to turn on the money spigot and make it all better.
You can probably tell from this that I spend too damn much time hanging around the 'Burg.'
Posted by: Sgt. Mom   2007-06-18 19:55  

#25  I just wanted to congratulate Sgt. Mom on her linked composition about Islam. That bit about the "psychic ATM" was some pretty fine wordsmithing. You go, Gal!
Posted by: Zenster   2007-06-18 19:36  

#24  #23: "if Islam is the coming thing, religiously speaking, it must be in circles that don't include me"

Me neither, Mom - and my circles ain't all that small.

I could get people to "convert" to the Religion of Barbara if they knew I would kill them if they didn't, and that no one would stop me.

As for the losers inmates and other assorted detritus, if that's the best i-slam can do where they aren't allowed to force "conversions" under threat of death - well, they're welcome to them. I'd be embarrassed if that were the best I could do, but apparently their mileage varies.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2007-06-18 18:29  

#23  Well, as I pointed out in my essay... because the penalty for straying from Islam publically is death, and the penalty for urging conversion is also death, everyone involved in converting from Islam has a damn good reason for staying very quiet and laying very low. Absolute figures would be about impossible to come by, with the usual means for figuring out this sort of thing.
Me, I've always wondered --- if there are so damn many people converting to Islam --- why have I never met any of then? I know its one of those logical faults to assume trends based on ones' own experience, but still...
The converts that I read about are either prison inmates (don't know any of those) or people who give the impression of desperatly shopping around for some kind of religious meaning for their life, and I don't know many of those, either. I don't think I have lived a particularly sheltered life, but if Islam is the coming thing, religiously speaking, it must be in circles that don't include me.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom   2007-06-18 18:00  

#22  On the apostate issue, like others I wonder about this.

There are some interesting websites like Islam watch and faith freedom that are mostly the product of apostates from Islam. However, I don't think it is really possible to get any hard numbers on this and I wouldn't trust anybody who said they had hard numbers.
Posted by: mhw   2007-06-18 17:25  

#21  Thank you TW... I thought that working from the assumption that Islam is hollow within, and on the verge of falling apart just explains certain things... like the extreme reaction to any sort of criticism.
And looking at something as relatively trivial as the falling membership for CAIR, and the disputed numbers of Moslems actually in the US, one can have cause to wonder if Islam is really desperatly trying to seem bigger and more monolithically ferocious than it actually is!
Posted by: Sgt. Mom   2007-06-18 16:54  

#20  Ah, that's nothing. Wait till they find out he's married to that Padma Lakshmi of Top Chef. Letting his woman run around with all them tight clothes on has to make their turbans get in a tizzy.....
Posted by: Swamp Blondie   2007-06-18 16:25  

#19  iran, just shut the fuck up .it's too bad we make them feel important too where they think they should voice their opinion on every subject
Posted by: sinse   2007-06-18 15:52  

#18  I think traditional barbarian Islam is on its last legs, however, it does love death more than life. With access to much of the world energy supply and nukes besides, will it take the rest of the world with it as it dies?
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2007-06-18 15:44  

#17  Interesting essay, Sgt. Mom. And your links are fascinating.
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-06-18 14:53  

#16  I wish the West would just wake up and put these rabid-dog barbarians down already.
Posted by: jds   2007-06-18 14:40  

#15  Carpet bomb Qom and Iran will collapse. Coast inoffensively until the Democrats put a putz in the White House, and future generations will spit on our graves.
Posted by: McZoid   2007-06-18 13:35  

#14  I wipe my ass with pages torn from the Koran.
Posted by: treo   2007-06-18 11:53  

#13  I curse your mother's moustache!
Posted by: Steve   2007-06-18 09:57  

#12  Should I add this to this list, sir?
Sure, Johnson. Why the hell not. What are we up to now?
I don't remember, sir. I'll have to run the algorithm.
Posted by: tu3031   2007-06-18 09:56  

#11  I eat pork scratchings and piss on the Koran.
Posted by: Excalibur   2007-06-18 09:49  

#10  I insult Islam too!

You are all a bunch of pedophile, baby goat raping, man-less parasitic wastes of oxygen and the faster you all die under a pile of pig entrails, the better.
Posted by: DarthVader   2007-06-18 09:20  

#9  Like TW, I'd also like to know about quiet apostasy among Moslims. I have begun to think lately that it must be happening often enough to really shake the confidence of the various Islamic leadership cadres, and perhaps that's why this outburst of ferocity, of late.
(Wrote about it here and here)
Posted by: Sgt. Mom   2007-06-18 09:14  

#8  Mohammad Ali Hosseini, I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.
Posted by: Glenmore   2007-06-18 08:45  

#7  Zenster certainly does have his moments. A quick question to help our discussions, Apostate, if you would be so kind. Based on your own experience, what would you estimate to be the percentage of Muslims that are quietly apostate -- either non-believers, atheists/agnostics, or actual converts to other religions -- wherever you live (ie US, Canada, Britain, since I've no idea where you are)? I think we need to have a better understanding of the relative ratios of active jihadis to passive supporters to passive/active enemies of the jihadi mindset.
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-06-18 08:44  

#6  Scr*w Islam. They have a long, illustrious history, starting in Medina with the support and encouragement of their Prophet, of murderous thuggery and assasination of troublesome politicians, poets, and writers who mocked Mohammed and his message. The day is long past due "when you just have to spit on your hands, hoist the black flag, and start slitting throats." (H.L. Mencken)
Posted by: ptah   2007-06-18 08:43  

#5  Zenster is hilarious!
Posted by: Apostate   2007-06-18 08:37  

#4  "claiming the British establishment had for many years been reluctant bribed and coerced not to be associated with the controversial figure."

There, fixed it.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2007-06-18 08:36  

#3  ...and your mother wears army shoes and your sister swims out to troopships, Persian losers.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2007-06-18 08:34  

#2  "This act shows that insulting Islamic sacred [values] is not accidental. It is planned, organised, guided and supported by some western countries."

This isn't much of a stretch. Islam's ability and willingness to be insulted—intentionally or not—is essentially limitless. Even a totally comatose person could probably figure out a dozen different ways. They just wouldn't have as much fun doing it.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-06-18 00:27  

#1  Tough titties Iran!
Posted by: 3dc   2007-06-18 00:12  

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