Well...the ISSUE is important- in that it causes people to examine more closely their own value systems and decide whether principle or pragmatism is more important.

*IF* the purpose of the knighthood was merely to honor one man's literary accomplishments..(and it is hard to 'prove' anything else)..then both Rushdie and Britain need to decide how to proceed in the face of more threats. It may be that there is no easy way to approach reasoning with people whose view is: 'ANYTHING said about our religion which we don't approve of merits violent response'....

Obviously, most religions don't have quite so extreme a view...and it is hard to tell exactly what % of Muslims accept this, but the % is getting larger, and the extremists seem willing to kill other Muslims, as well as blasphemers, in order to promote this attitude.
It makes protest from within a bit awkward and dangerous, at least in some countries....and I can well imagine a situation where moderate Muslims are caught in the crossfire all over the world.

I see no easy solutions, only sad scenarios........