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| Knighthood for Rushdie to alienate UK Muslims |
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Sunday, June 17, 2007
Rauf Klasra
LONDON: The British government’s dramatic and unexpected decision to give a knighthood to Salman Rushdie in the Queen’s birthday honours, in the name of his services to literature, might further alienate the British Muslims and many fear that the process of the reconciliation might be badly affected.
A highly controversial figure, Rushdie, has been decorated in the Queen’s birthday honours that recognise famous names and private deeds. Former England Captain Ian Botham has also been given a knighthood for his services to charity and cricket.
The British government’s decision has also surprised the British public, the media in general and the Muslims in particular as they were not expecting that a controversial figure like Rushdie might receive such a big award at this stage when Muslims are already annoyed with Britain because of its war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The tension between Muslims and the British government had become so alarming that recently Tony Blair arranged an inter-faith conference to remove misunderstandings between Muslims and other communities. The fresh decision will not go down well with the British Muslims, who after 9/11 are fast turning towards radical Islam.
The honour to Rushdie has been given a day after a local court sentenced seven Muslim radical youths to 136 years in jail as they had planned to bomb London to express their anger over the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. So, it is being feared here that this surprising decision might create tension within British society, and the process of integration might be affected as the disgruntled Muslims would feel that they were being deliberately made to realize that their religious feelings did not carry any weight in the eyes of the British government. Many Muslims might agitate over this decision and the extremist elements might exploit Rushdie getting a knighthood for their own ends.
Salman Rushdie, who spent years in hiding after a Fatwa was issued against him, has been given a knighthood for services to literature. In Pakistan, about a dozen of people were killed in Islamabad during Benazir Bhutto’s first government when protestors had come onto the roads to protest against Rushdie.
Rushdie told the British media that he was thrilled and humbled to receive this great honour, adding: “I’m very grateful that my work has been recognised in this way.”
The Satanic Verses was condemned by Muslims as blasphemous and it provoked the Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa in 1989. Copies of the book were burnt on the streets in Britain and abroad.
Rushdie, who was born in Mumbai, rose to fame after his novel Midnight’s Children won the Booker Prize in 1981. It went on to win the Booker of Bookers in 1993, when it was voted the best winner of the literary prize in the 25 years since its inception.
Rushdie’s latest novel, Shalimar the Clown, was long-listed for the Booker, but Midnight’s Children is still widely regarded as his greatest work.
His literary career began inauspiciously in advertising, where he came up with the cream cakes slogan “naughty but nice”.
A report says Rushdie was not the only surprise in this year’s honours list. Barry Humphries, known to most as his television alter ego Dame Edna Everage, has been appointed CBE for services to entertainment. The Australian comedian, who settled in London in the 1960s, has kept his cross-dressing stage character of Dame Edna going since the fifties.
The Glastonbury mastermind Mike Eavis was also honoured. The 71-year-old Methodist dairy farmer, who established the music festival in 1970, has always shunned establishment values. But now the anti-nuclear campaigner has been created a CBE for services to music.
Also appointed a CBE today is the historian and broadcaster David Starkey. As an academic at London School of Economics, his greatest contribution to Tudor research was an exploration of the social etiquette of Henry VIII’s household. But it is Dr Starkey’s popular television series, The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Monarchy, which are credited with making history accessible.
The Leeds-born romance writer Barbara Taylor Bradford proves that you do not need to be an academic to be acknowledged for services to literature. Taylor Bradford, who has been created an OBE, now lives in New York and is known for her light, salacious novels. She has written two highly successful series, the Emma Harte Saga and the Deravenel Trilogy, which have sold more than 70 million copies, making her the biggest selling female author of the past 25 years.
The screenwriter, director and playwright Stephen Poliakoff was appointed a CBE. He was awarded an Emmy for his film The Lost Prince and a Prix Italia for his series Perfect Strangers.
Peter Sallis, the voice of Wallace, the Palestine man in the Wallace and Gromit films, has been appointed an OBE for services to drama. He is also known for playing the part of Norman Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine. The Dad’s Army star Bill Pertwee also features in the honours list, but his MBE is not for his performance in the classic television series, but for charitable services.
Also acknowledged with a CBE is the CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour, for services to journalism. She established herself at the channel with her coverage of the 1991 Gulf War and went on to work as a war correspondent all over the world. She is now based in London and continues to cover international conflicts.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
