Controversial Author: Now an OBE!

18/06/07 18:39 Filed in: Other
rushdie

As per the annual custom, the Queen of England has announced her list of this year’s figures who will be knighted by receiving the title ‘Officer of the British Empire’ or OBE. The most controversial person on the list, is Indian native, Salman Rushdie-world celebrated author, and crafter of the controversial book, The Satanic Verses.

Published in 1988, the book has been received with harsh criticism across the Muslim world, and trigerred a fatwa of takfir by Aytollah Khomeini in 1989. Rushdie had been in hiding since then, and only appeared in public life nine years later after Iranian officials relented the fatwa.

Like his book, the announcement of Rushdie as an official holder of the OBE thus granting him the title ‘Sir’ and making him a member of the royal court, has been acutely denounced by Pakistan, Iran and a large number of Muslim states who have called for the boycott of diplomatic relations with the UK. The UK has yet to officially respond.

Is this decision a step in the right direction by grating free speech its rightful stand, or is it, as put by Pakistani Minister for Religious Affairs, Ejaz-ul-haq, that such actions are “the root causes of terrorism?”

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MHG
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