The largest problem with that analogy is that the British Government didn't forget not to give Rushdie his knighthood. Once deciding that he was a desrving recipient (has anyone offered up anything to suggest that he was undeserving relative to other recipients?), they continued on a deliberate course without appeasement of the assassinators. It was the noble and proper course of action to stand by him in the face of his (eventually lifelong) tribulations.