I have to say, this made me smile.
Iran on Sunday condemned Britain’s decision to knight Salman Rushdie, the author who was forced into hiding for a decade after the leader of the Iranian revolution ordered his assassination.
Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said granting Britain’s highest honor to Rushdie, whose novel “The Satanic Verses” sparked the death threat, insulted the Muslim world. His comments came during a time of especially tense relations between the Islamic republic and the West.
“Awarding a person who is among the most detested characters in the Islamic society is obvious proof of anti-Islamism by ranking British officials,” Hosseini said at his weekly press conference.
I think the appropriate answer here from the Brits would be, “Yeah, what-EVER.”
On the other hand, raise hands, those of you who have ever read The Satanic Verses.
I have not. And I ‘r’ a English major.
I’ze red it and i is enjineering gradjuate.
I have read most of his other books and his children’s tales are a delight. The fatwas will probably produce a run on his books.
I have. Dull book. A lot like Master and Margarita.
I’ve read it, and I took a stab (as it were) at East, West but never managed to finish it.
I read it and at best it was okay.
Never read any of his stuff. Magical Realism does not sound like the sort of thing I’d be interested in. I’m like Tolkien, I prefer history, real or feigned.
From what I understand Rushdie wasn’t too thrilled with Western Civilization before Khomenei’s fatwa, except the freedom of speech part his income depended on. A run-of-the-mill leftie I heard. I thought the attacks on Rushdie by Westerners (including the Chief Rabbi of Britain I am sorry to say) were inexcusable. The West should have defended him better, on general principles.
Does anybody know what order of knighthood he’s getting?
Possibly the Pharaohs of Teheran will use this as an excuse for another attack on Britain, kidnapping some more sailors or something, or a suicide bombing in London. If so I think they ought to do, and I encourage the Brits to do, something very drastic in retaliation to the next atrocity from Iran. We should back them strongly.
I read it, because someone bought it for me during the original controversy. It took a bit of work to chew through, but in the end, I thought it was worthwhile. Definitely a different sort of flavor than the usual American or British modern literary fiction. Rather dreamlike in structure, not the “fable”-like magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez (or Alice Hoffman). Meanwhile, I suspect someone with the same ethnic background as Rushdie would get more out of it than I did….
I tried to read it. Couldn’t get past the first few chapters.