Pakistan Objects to Rushdie Honors

Jun 18, 01:22 PM

Current Headlines: The Pakistan parliament has voted unanimously to condemn the Queen of England's bestowal of knighthood on controversial author Salman Rushdie.

Rushdie, who went into hiding after his book, The Satanic Verses, caused an uproar in the Muslim world that included a fatwa issued by the government of Iran in 1989 that ordered Muslims to kill him, was sharply criticized by members of the Pakistan parliament who claim the book is insulting to Islam, The Times of London reported Monday.

The resolution was proposed by Sher Afgan Khan Niazi, Pakistan's minister for Parliamentary Affairs, who called Rushdie a blasphemer and said his knighthood is an insult to the religious sentiments of Muslims.

Every religion should be respected, Niazi said before the country's National Assembly, I demand the British government immediately withdraw the title as it is creating religious hatred, he said.

Many Muslims consider Rushdie's novel to be blasphemous because it refers to Satanic Verses, which are interpolations in the Koran that many deny the authority of.