--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "shempmcgurk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I'll be the first one to defend Salman Rushdie's right to publish > incediary books such as "The Satanic Verses". > > What I don't really understand is why the British Government would go > out of its way to recommend to the Queen that he receive a knighthood > from the Queen. > > It's one thing to defend freedom of speech; it's quite another to > reward someone for something that, warranted or not, is profoundly > insulting to members of a religion. And, hey, for all I know Rushdie's > book is NOT insulting to Muslims and they manufactured the "insult". > Nevertheless, they do express their revulsion, which they have the > right to do. > > Alan Dershowitz defended the right of Neo-Nazis to march on Skokie. > But I can't imagine him handing out Awards to those Nazis for civic > pride. > > At such a sensitive time, why would Britain want to unnecessarily > needle Islam? > I was wondering the same thing- Perhaps it is an agressive decoy to divert attention (or placate Bush) from the fact that most of their originally 30,000 soldiers have left Iraq.:-)
