Hating Sir Salman
Pakistan and Iran have summoned their British ambassadors to protest that author Salman Rushdie, accused of insulting Islam in his novel “The Satanic Verses,” was to be honored with a knighthood.Iranian Foreign Ministry official Ebrahim Rahimpour told the British ambassador to Tehran, Geoffrey Adams, that the decision was a “provocative act” that has angered Muslims, the state Islamic Republic News Agency reported Wednesday.
I am not particularly fond of Rushdie’s book, however his bravery for writing it, and the threats he has lived with since are deserving of respect. Insulting Islam, just like insulting Christianity or insulting Atheism, is a right that every person on earth should have. That so many don’t is a tradgedy.
Islam is, in my opinion, a great enough religion to withstand any amount of ‘insult,’ what it cannot withstand, and what will destroy it if Muslims are not careful, is leaders who believe that compulsion in religion and a violent threats in response to ‘insult’ is proper.
