Salman Rushdie

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan on Monday condemned Britain's award of a knighthood to author Salman Rushdie as an affront to Muslim sentiments, and a Cabinet minister said the honor provided a justification for suicide attacks.

"This is an occasion for the (world's) 1.5 billion Muslims to look at the seriousness of this decision," Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, religious affairs minister, said in parliament.

"The West is accusing Muslims of extremism and terrorism. If someone exploded a bomb on his body, he would be right to do so unless the British government apologizes and withdraws the 'sir' title," ul-Haq said.

He sounds like Doug in the sense that what he's saying is a logical contradiction. He objects to the West accusing Muslims of extremism and reacts by validating suicide bombers. Uh... duh!

I've read a bit of Rushdie's work - and the underlying theme is not just the dangers of radical Islam, but the dangers of any theocratic movement. That includes bat-shit crazy Christianists who would usurp the American secular form of government. It's all the same, as they truly are simply opposite sides of the same coin.

Kudos to the Brits for knighting Rushdie.. although the "knighthood" is a bit of class-centric silliness. It's still a thumbing of the nose at the Islamic institutionalized religion, and I favor that course for every religion.