Pakistan is complaining about the recent award of a knighthood to Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses (famed for its apparent disrespect of Islam).
“He was told that Salman Rushdie has been a controversial figure who is known less for his literary contribution and more for his offensive and insulting writing which deeply hurts the sentiments of Muslims all over the world,” she said.
“Conferment of a knighthood on Salman Rushdie shows an utter lack of sensitivity on the part of the British government,” she said.
I find this doublethink from religious leaders (not just Muslims) fascinating. As one example, Islam claims that Jesus was a prophet, a wise and blessed man. Christianity has many variations, but at the core of all is that Jesus Christ is the actual, for-real, not allegorical son of God. Islam’s denial of that is as big an insult to Christianity as I can imagine, but almost all all agree to get along (more or less). Yet a writer primarily famed for the fuss Muslims made over his writings is cause enough for hostility like this. Bizarre.
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Very good point. More infuriating to me is the fact that leaders of totalitarian countries such as Iran use the freedoms of the West to denigrate those very same freedoms.
You also don’t hear a lot of sensitivity coming from those countries regarding Jews, Christians, or atheists, for that matter.
“Our education system has been affected by 150 years of secular thought and has raised thousands of people who hold Ph.D.s. Changing this system is not easy, and we have to do it together.”
A quote Marty would applaud, I’m sure. Except for that one tiny little issue that this missive was uttered by none other than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the form of an apology to students for allowing “liberal” and “secular” professors to remain in their posts wherein he goes on to recommend a “purging” of the faculty.