Redstate

By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Featured Stories | Foreign Affairs — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

This represents one of the more appalling bits of backsliding imaginable, especially given the fact that Pakistan is an American ally against terrorism:

Pakistan demanded on Monday that Britain withdraw a knighthood awarded to author Salman Rushdie, as a government minister said the honour gave a justification for suicide attacks by Muslims.

Angry protesters in several cities torched British flags and beat them with their shoes in protest at the accolade for the Indian-born writer of "The Satanic Verses" and chanted "Death to Britain, death to Rushdie."

Rushdie, 59, was forced to go into hiding for a decade after Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 issued a death sentence over his book "The Satanic Verses," claiming it insulted Islam.

Iran has already accused British leaders of "Islamophobia" after Rushdie -- now Sir Salman -- was awarded the knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II on Saturday to mark her 81st birthday.

"If somebody has to attack by strapping bombs to his body to protect the honour of the Prophet, then it is justified," Pakistani Religious Affairs Minister Ijaz-ul-Haq told the national assembly.

The minister, the son of military dictator Zia-ul-Haq who died in a plane crash in 1988, later retracted his statement in parliament and said he meant to say that knighting Rushdie could spark terrorism.

"I was explaining that if the British government awards a knighthood to Salman Rushdie -- whose only credibility is that he wrote a blasphemous book -- then such action with encourage extremism," he told AFP.

"If someone blows himself up he will consider himself justified. How can we fight terrorism when those who commit blasphemy are rewarded by the West?" he said.

More below the fold . . .

The "retraction" fools no one, of course. Indeed, one may--and should--as the minister how it is that we can fight terrorism when ministers in the Pakistani government give a wink and a nod to terrorist acts merely because an author in Britain writes something that they don't like to read.

In any event, good for Britain for respecting diversity of thought and granting Rushdie the knighthood. He deserves it and his stance in favor of free speech deserves the staunchest defense. Those who react against this honor by seeking to kill others deserves not only the most severe condemnation, but the swiftest punishments as well. They are, after all, the true blasphemers.