Rushdie Reveals
Sir Salmon Rushdie. Not a bad ring to it.
I can’t say whether Rushdie deserves his knighthood or not as I’ve never read any of his books. He does not though deserve to be threatened with murder for what he writes.
What many people (especially those that would apologise for it) seem to have forgotten in this whole debate about his reward is just exactly how extremist and fundamentalist the people protesting are, and what’s more that they seem to be getting support and encouragement from the Pakistani government.
The head of the High Commission was summoned by the Pakistani government to explain and apologise for the knighting of one Mr Rushdie.
This is insane. What should have happened is that the Pakistani Ambassador should have been summarily summoned to our government to demand to know why people in his country were burning our flags and why an elected representative was allowed to stand up in the Pakistani parliament advocating suicide terrorist bombings in Britain without censure. We should be asking the ambassador if the Pakistani government is sanctioning terrorism.
Those that would apologise are not only giving in to terrorist threats, but are sending a clear message that our own internal politics is now dictated by the views of the religious fanatics and terrorist in Islamabad, and not by our own people and our own will.
Freedom of speech, freedom of expression is one of the core values that separates the civilised societies from the barbaric and repressive societies. We must ensure that we guard it, and that we don’t give in to the terrorist barbarians that would repress us and force us to live under their violently enforced silence.
Some additional views on the matter:
