Pak MPs: Rushdie knighthood 'justifies suicide attacks'

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

rclouse, yes - the dream involved ayesha, the prophets youngest wife...

[dalegg 143]

Why are Muslim extremists so threatened by what one guy says? Is their faith so weak it can't handle someone criticizing it?

On balance that would be true of all religious extremists, not just the Islamic ones.

Acknowleded, I agree.

Hey, when was the last time somebody criticized a religion other than Islam that advocated suicide bombings of the country involved in the criticism?

[homesick_american 1]

I've never read a Rushdie novel, so I can't judge whether the knighthood is justified for his literary efforts. The whole honours system is outdated anyway. It's meaningless and twice a year I'm surprised at a number of people I have previously respected who continue this farce by accepting these honours.

Is it a two-fingered gesture to the Muslim world? I doubt it. Not offering the gong could also be seen as capitulation. And Rushdie knows only too well that he is putting his head back above the parapet again. He could have refused it, and no one would be any the wiser. I get the impression he likes the notoriety.

Salman Rushdie is a self-important pompous tw@t. I've read more than one of his books and never understood what the fuss was about. In the Satanic Verses he was basically up his own #######.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I can't hear you guys over the sound of the bottom of the barrel being scraped.

The one that irritates me is Shami Chakrabati....she practically invented selective outrage. She sucks.

Who is she?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6758217.stm

Stands up for terrorists' rights.

Why can't she do the world a favor and blow herself up?

Careful before you condemn her out of hand. I'm not overly familiar with her - but the few quotes that I found would seem to suggest that if she supports terrorists rights, then so does every human rights charity; or indeed anyone who questions Bush administration policy regarding Guantanamo Bay, Secret "black hole" prisons, and the use of torture.

I think it would help to have lived here and listened to her bleating on the radio about terrorists' human rights for the last several years to appreciate her own special brand of selective indignation.

Perhaps. But I'd really have to seek that out for myself, rather than merely take someone's word for it. Accusations of that nature are 10 a penny these days - to the point where charity organisations like the International Committee of the Red Cross have almost had their budgets cut by the US senate for airing views that they don't like.

Underneath it all of course, is a pretty serious issue.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Why are Muslim extremists so threatened by what one guy says? Is their faith so weak it can't handle someone criticizing it?

On balance that would be true of all religious extremists, not just the Islamic ones.

Acknowleded, I agree.

Hey, when was the last time somebody criticized a religion other than Islam that advocated suicide bombings of the country involved in the criticism?

That's not the same argument.

[homesick_american 1]

Perhaps. But I'd really have to seek that out for myself, rather than merely take someone's word for it. Accusations of that nature are 10 a penny these days - to the point where charity organisations like the International Committee of the Red Cross have almost had their budgets cut by the US senate for airing views that they don't like.

Underneath it all of course, is a pretty serious issue.

I think there's a difference between the ICRC and Liberty, which to me is an extreme left organization that really gets on my nerves, and I consider myself to be left of center and a social liberal. I'm all for civil liberties, but I'm not in favor of the UK police groveling in apology to every British Muslim they investigate in connection with a terrorism plot.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Salman Rushdie is a self-important pompous tw@t. I've read more than one of his books and never understood what the fuss was about. In the Satanic Verses he was basically up his own #######.

I and a friend from Nellore (independently) perused parts of Satanic Verses between 1991 and 1993.

Our conclusion was that it was like a grossly enlarged Stardust (fairly popular Bollywood-dealing yellow-journal) written in Hawkingesque (as in Stephen, the brilliant physicist with motor-neuron-disease--making it a good question if Rushdie himself actually understands his own work).

The big fuss was created by Syed Shahbuddin, a chopfrack Indian MP representing a Bihar constituency (Biharis are chopfracks by definition) who claimed in a dictated (Shahbuddin is illiterate in any language, including Urdu) letter that it was filth and "that he did not need to wade in a sewer to know it was dirty" (see my earlier comment on Biharis).

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Salman Rushdie is a self-important pompous tw@t. I've read more than one of his books and never understood what the fuss was about. In the Satanic Verses he was basically up his own #######.

I and a friend from Nellore (independently) perused parts of Satanic Verses between 1991 and 1993.

Our conclusion was that it was like a grossly enlarged Stardust (fairly popular Bollywood-dealing yellow-journal) written in Hawkingesque (as in Stephen, the brilliant physicist with motor-neuron-disease--making it a good question if Rushdie himself actually understands his own work).

The big fuss was created by Syed Shahbuddin, a chopfrack Indian MP representing a Bihar constituency (Biharis are chopfracks by definition) who claimed in a dictated (Shahbuddin is illiterate in any language, including Urdu) letter that it was filth and "that he did not need to wade in a sewer to know it was dirty" (see my earlier comment on Biharis).

At least they smell better than Tamils do

[mawilson 2,133]

Salman Rushdie is a self-important pompous tw@t. I've read more than one of his books and never understood what the fuss was about. In the Satanic Verses he was basically up his own #######.

I'm all for civil liberties, but I'm not in favor of the UK police groveling in apology to every British Muslim they investigate in connection with a terrorism plot.

Why shouldn't the police apologise if they investigate someone who's innocent?

[homesick_american 1]

Why shouldn't the police apologise if they investigate someone who's innocent?

Because they don't apologize to anybody else, and Lady Shami isn't asking them to apologize to everyone...just to the Muslims. I didn't hear a peep out of her when British Muslims took to the streets with signs saying things like "Behead those who insult the prophet." I think only one person was even prosecuted for that.

This country really disgusts me sometimes.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Salman Rushdie is a self-important pompous tw@t. I've read more than one of his books and never understood what the fuss was about. In the Satanic Verses he was basically up his own #######.

I and a friend from Nellore (independently) perused parts of Satanic Verses between 1991 and 1993.

Our conclusion was that it was like a grossly enlarged Stardust (fairly popular Bollywood-dealing yellow-journal) written in Hawkingesque (as in Stephen, the brilliant physicist with motor-neuron-disease--making it a good question if Rushdie himself actually understands his own work).

The big fuss was created by Syed Shahbuddin, a chopfrack Indian MP representing a Bihar constituency (Biharis are chopfracks by definition) who claimed in a dictated (Shahbuddin is illiterate in any language, including Urdu) letter that it was filth and "that he did not need to wade in a sewer to know it was dirty" (see my earlier comment on Biharis).

At least they smell better than Tamils do

Have you actually made a comparison of Chennai and Patna lately?

Chennai (with over 1 crore population) is far cleaner (rubbish is at least picked-up once in awhile) than Patna ever has been.

[mawilson 2,133]

Because they don't apologize to anybody else, and Lady Shami isn't asking them to apologize to everyone...just to the Muslims. I didn't hear a peep out of her when British Muslims took to the streets with signs saying things like "Behead those who insult the prophet." I think only one person was even prosecuted for that.

Well, I think if the police wrongfully accuse someone, Muslim or not, they should apologise.

British Muslims inciting violence with those signs should have been rounded up and arrested;

all of them, no exceptions.

There should also be a way to strip people of their citizenship if their loyalties lie with a foreign

(and hostile) power. At the very least, they should be prosecuted under the Treason Act 1351:

"if a man do levy war against our lord the King in his realm, or be adherent to the King’s

enemies in his realm, giving to them aid and comfort in the realm, or elsewhere, and thereof

be probably attainted of open deed by the people of their condition"

[homesick_american 1]

Because they don't apologize to anybody else, and Lady Shami isn't asking them to apologize to everyone...just to the Muslims. I didn't hear a peep out of her when British Muslims took to the streets with signs saying things like "Behead those who insult the prophet." I think only one person was even prosecuted for that.

Well, I think if the police wrongfully accuse someone, Muslim or not, they should apologise.

British Muslims inciting violence with those signs should have been rounded up and arrested;

all of them, no exceptions.

There should also be a way to strip people of their citizenship if their loyalties lie with a foreign

(and hostile) power. At the very least, they should be prosecuted under the Treason Act 1351:

"if a man do levy war against our lord the King in his realm, or be adherent to the King’s

enemies in his realm, giving to them aid and comfort in the realm, or elsewhere, and thereof

be probably attainted of open deed by the people of their condition"

The thing is, they weren't rounded up and arrested. That wouldn't have been politically correct. The order of the day seems to be to allow them to incite whatever sh!t they want, then wring their hands and ask "why do they hate us so much?" Well....have they ever considered that Islamic terrorists might just be azzholes?

[dalegg 143]

Why are Muslim extremists so threatened by what one guy says? Is their faith so weak it can't handle someone criticizing it?

On balance that would be true of all religious extremists, not just the Islamic ones.

Acknowleded, I agree.

Hey, when was the last time somebody criticized a religion other than Islam that advocated suicide bombings of the country involved in the criticism?

That's not the same argument.

Hmm. It was a difficult question to phrase and I think I phrased it wrong. I'll try again.

When was the last time somebody criticized a religion other than Islam that resulted in that person's country being threatened with suicide bombings (or just regular bombings), or a prominant member of another countries government stating that such actions would be justified?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Perhaps. But I'd really have to seek that out for myself, rather than merely take someone's word for it. Accusations of that nature are 10 a penny these days - to the point where charity organisations like the International Committee of the Red Cross have almost had their budgets cut by the US senate for airing views that they don't like.

Underneath it all of course, is a pretty serious issue.

I think there's a difference between the ICRC and Liberty, which to me is an extreme left organization that really gets on my nerves, and I consider myself to be left of center and a social liberal. I'm all for civil liberties, but I'm not in favor of the UK police groveling in apology to every British Muslim they investigate in connection with a terrorism plot.

IMO that has more to do with the fallout from high-publicity cases like the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1999, and the result of the public inquiry that suggested that the Metropolitan police mishandling of that case was the result of "institutional racism".