Salman Rushdie - Outrage.

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: heric
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 11:46 AM

should be a fatwah on you for that joke

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: John Hardly
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 11:44 AM

On the menu at a fast-seafood resaurant:

Salmon Rushedy.

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: concertina ceol
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 11:42 AM

Apart from being a fairly obscure author - has anyone read any of his books? - the poor bloke is famous for two things - this dreadful fatwa and "naughty but nice" - which may be a desciption applied to the knighthood perhaps?

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 11:41 AM

Correct Bruce, it works both ways.
However we [the UK] have deliberately provoked an unnecessary piece of unpleasantness, and that is why the Pakistan parliament is voting in the way it is.

G.

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: beardedbruce
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 11:35 AM

It is really none of THEIR business what WE do in OUR own country.


Must be true, since it is what you said about them...

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 11:31 AM

I agree with Ian.

George P. said: But this doesn't stop this honours move being insensitive, crass, provocative and illogical in today's world.

Not so. Suspending all such recognition until things settle down in the Middle East surely condemns writers like Rushdie to no acknowledgement of their life's work. That would be silly. There many are people in the Middle East (and other nations with large Muslim populations, such as India, where he is actually FROM) who are not part of the current madness and who still care about these kinds of things. Ignore the "squeaking wheel" for once and give others a chance at enjoying a bit of normalcy.

Stop acting as if this madness that George W. Bush has escalated and Israel has exacerbated to its fullest is ruling the entire Muslim world. It isn't, and many people who aren't terrorists would like to get on with their lives and perhaps some of them who aren't fundamentalist zealots even enjoy his work. Let them.

SRS

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: GUEST,Ian cookieless
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 11:29 AM

Threatening to kill a British citizen, none of our business? Is this none of our business?

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 11:25 AM

I agree that the fatwah was a gross over reaction, I am merely pointing out that we do meddle an awful lot in their affairs, and also presume to tell them how they should live their lives.
It is really none of our business what they do in their own country.
Giok

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: beardedbruce
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 11:20 AM

So, Giok, when an Islamic nation does something that upsets us, we are supposed to be understanding and not object, while if we do something they do not approve of, it is our fault, and our responsibility to backpedal?

Sounds as if you do not think that Islamic nations should be treated as "adults" but as immature, ignorant children who are not responsible for their actions. I do not agree with such bigotry about ANYONE.

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: GUEST,Ian cookieless
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 11:19 AM

Richard, don't get your point. What non-literary thing is it that Salman is to be blamed for? Or have I missed the point?

If Pakistan's sabre-rattling threat is to be seen as OK, is it also OK for me to track down anyone on this thread who I feel insulted by and kill them? Or invite others to do the same? Do they really think their God is so small that he needs protecting against insults - by death squads?!

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 11:17 AM

Having read the article linked by Wolfgang, I would just point out that Pakistan is regarded by the west as an ally, in their fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
G.

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 11:12 AM

We have been interfering in their lives for quite along time, not surprised they're a bit hacked off with western meddling.
G.

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 11:11 AM

I suppose that Sir SR got his K for services to literature or something. Objecting to it on other grounds is foolish. I mean, imagine (just imagine for a moment) that Gary Glitter wrote a series of wonderful musical pieces, and then got a K for services to music. Would we object on the grounds that not only he was a convicted paedophile but also that some of his earlier "musical" works were thinly disguised paeans to paedophilia?

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: Wolfgang
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 11:10 AM

Rushdie knighthood 'justifies suicide attacks' (link to GUARDIAN article)

Ils sont fous les...

I would appreciate a common unequivocal reaction of the EU.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: GUEST,Ian cookieless
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 11:06 AM

Am I understanding some of these arguments right? We should curtail our own literary endeavors and freedom of speech by not honouring a very successful and respected writer whose sophisticated literature and free speech others tried to curtial by an order to murder, just in case those same attempted murderers don't like it? Should we also, in the 1960s, have laid off giving Martin Luther King the Nobel Peace Prize in case the KKK objected? Should I resign from Amnesty International in case terrorists, state murderers and torturers the world over object to me sending letters?

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: 282RA
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 10:55 AM

While I don't fault the Muslims for what they do to Americans since we were stupid enough to involve ourselves in their affairs, this "Kill Rushdie" stuff is incredibly idiotic.

They're acting like bad-tempered children. This is why we should never have involved ourselves with these crazy bastards.

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: guitar
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 10:55 AM

I'm glad that he was made a sir and the Muslims having a hissie fit, I mean that's just them, you know its our way or no way

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 10:35 AM

Oh I agree with you Peter, however I think a little bit of discretion would have been the better part of valour. How are we all going to feel when someone dies in a bomb attack because of this?
It looks like, and probably is, an act of deliberate provocation on the part of the UK government, and as such it is as infantile a reaction as that of the Ayatollah Khomeni in ordering the original fatwah.
Two wrongs never did make a right!
Giok

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 10:30 AM

I have to agree with John, Peter. The one doesn't cancel the other. The fatwa was and is outrageous, wrong, ridiculous, stupid, and anything else you'd like to call it. But this doesn't stop this honours move being insensitive, crass, provocative and illogical in today's world.

The two wrongs don't make a right, and a comparison makes no sense, because bad is bad. No double standard, quite the opposite: I condemn both, with the same logic.

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: Midchuck
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 10:15 AM

Not as "ham handed" as ordering him killed for writing something that disagreed with their religion. I hate to say it, John, but I think you're running sort of a double standard here.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 09:59 AM

Salman Rushdie was up on stage with the Incredible String Band in about 1968 at the RFH.
I think that counts, though I don't think the recognition was for his musical abilities, exactly . . .

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: Folk Form # 1
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 09:56 AM

The Muslim world is having another hissy fit. Gee, what a surprise.

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 09:56 AM

It was also ham handed in the extreme with the MIddle East in it's present state of flux, to choose now to make the award. I knew the minute I heard the news, that there would be an outcry from Iran et al.
Giok

Subject: RE: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 09:54 AM

This belongs in the non-music section. Unless Salman is a closet folkie!

Subject: Salman Rushdie - Outrage.
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 09:52 AM

I see that the Muslim world is up in arms over writer Salman Rushdie being awarded a British knighthood. And Muslim countries wonder why many in the West think they are primitive and dangerous. Such an outcry doesn't help their case at all.