Pusillanimous

Britain gives a knighthood to Salman Rushdie and then...

Effigies of Queen Elizabeth are being burnt in Pakistan.

Pakistan's Parliament passes a resolution condemning the award.

Britain's representative in Pakistan is summoned to the foreign ministry for a rebuke.

Pakistan's Religious Affairs Minister Ijaz-ul-Haq says that the knighthood for Mr Rushdie could justify suicide attacks on Britain.

[Let's not forget that Britain is home for over 800,000 immigrants from Pakistan.]

An Iranian foreign ministry official calls the Rushdie honour provacative and says that "the consequences of this provocation, which has angered Muslims, will be directed at the British Queen and government."

I ask for a statement from Shadow Home Secretary David Davis and am told by a Conservative HQ staffer: "Sorry.  No Comment From Us."

Has Parliament discussed this issue today?  No.

Pusillanimous is the word that comes to mind.

There's worse to come...

Few Conservatives would put Mr Rushie at the top of any list for a knighthood but I hope that most would also reject the idea that any foreign power should veto the awarding of an honour.  In an interview with ePolitix.com, Conservative MP Stewart Jackson mouths a rejection of any such a veto but goes on to effectively claim that we have sent the wrong message to Pakistan:

"We do not need a situation where we are gratuitously offending our allies in the fight against terror. I believe it was wrong and I think the Prime Minister's office should think very carefully about that decision.  If you are going to give a knighthood to someone then you have to bear in mind the message what the message you are giving is going to be.  It is for Her Majesty and the government to decide who they give honours to and not open to the veto of a foreign power but it does convey an important message and the timing was very insensitive particularly with ongoing problems with Iran and the instability in Pakistan.  I am not entirely certain myself whether Salman Rushdie is deserving of a knighthood given his ingratitude to the taxpayers of this country for protecting him form the fatwah for the best part of 10 years and the fact that he is not normally resident in the United Kingdom and the fact that essentially he writes rubbish books - for all those reasons he does not deserve a knighthood.”

Stewart Jackson is the one who is sending out the wrong message.  We need to show Muslim nations that free speech is non-negotiable for us.  Peter Whittle of the New Culture Forum has a good post on what's at stake here.

Related link: Pakistan is an incubator for terrorism

10.45am update on 20/6: From today's Times: "Paul Goodman, the Tory MP for Wycombe, said that the UK should demand an apology from the highest reaches of the Pakistani government for Mr ul-Haq's comments and compared the Government's response to its quiet stand in the protests over Danish newspaper cartoons that depicted the Prophet Muhammad last year.  “Our own Government should call for such a condemnation without delay," he said. "Instead, there appears to be radio silence on the matter from ministers. It’s Groundhog Day from the Government on incitement from terror: in the aftermath of the Danish cartoon protests in London, ministers stood idly by. It’s the same feeble story today.”"

11am update: Stephen Crabb MP has put these questions to International Development Secretary Hillary Benn today:

• "What assessment he has made of the impact of UK aid to Pakistan in strengthening freedom of speech in Pakistan."
• "What assessment he has made of the impact of UK aid to Pakistan in reducing violations of religious freedom in Pakistan."
• "What assessment he has made of the impact of UK aid to Pakistan in reducing anti-British extremism in Pakistan."
• "What discussions he has had with the Ambassador of Pakistan about continuance of UK aid to Pakistan in light of the official rebuke by Pakistani authorities over HM Queen's birthday honours."
• "The amount of aid given to Pakistan by his Department in each of the last five years, and planned expenditure for the next three years."
  

Comments

[Umbrella man]

Stuart Chamberlain Jackson has lots of Muslims in his Peterboro seat.

[bluepatriot]

I'm surprised at David Davis. Tories were slow on the Danish cartoons too. Perhaps Cameron will raise the issue at Prime Minister's Question Time tomorrow.

[Munich Watch]

Stewart Jackson really is a wretch, isn't he? If our NATO allies in, say, Holland decided to take exception to a distinguished British author who mocked their beliefs, would Mr Jackson grovel to them too?

Of course not. And why? Because the Dutch are not savages who threaten to kill anyone who 'offends' them and because there aren't many immigrants from the Netherlands in Peterborough.

If we compromise the principles of our free society to keep the Pakistanis on board the anti-terror coalition then not only would we be sending out a signal of chronic weakness and irresolution but we would have surrendered without a fight.

Perhaps Jackson should defect to Hizb-ut-Tahrir.

[Curly]

Just as worrying are the comments of The British Muslim Council, it would be nice if some of the more moderate and more representative views were heard.

[Alex Swanson]

Pusillanimous is the word that comes to mind.

Stewart Jackson is the one who is sending out the wrong message.

Well said.

[Spellchecker]

provacative

Provocative

[Nikki C]

Stuart Chamberlain Jackson is a strange combination of names.
Is this pro-tyrant coward possibly related to the notorious anti-semitic writer Houston Stuart Chamberlain?

[HF]

The Editor is calling on us to defend a non-resident and Jackson MP stokes the debate by opening his mouth to defend the indefensible.

Why do we need to enter the debate when both sides are wrong? Rushdie did not deserve the award nor does a foreign Govt have the right to threaten death to a non-combatant.

Let Labour debate this one as its core problem is the awful choice of recipient and Labour creating a situation where it is necessary to appease Muslims. A mess that Labour created, let them be held to account.

[TomTom]

I agree HF. It is very weird, I can only assume Rushdie gave £250.000 to the Labour Party and this is why Yates of The Yard was sent to do more investigations.

Pakistan is getting tiresome, exporting its tribal politics into Britain. One would have thought creating their own statelet in 1947 would have been enough, but now they try to dictate what we should do in England as if implying that Pakistani immigrants to Britain are a Fifth Column to be activated - which is another reason Pakistan should cease these threats and effigy burning......it was after all book-burning that started this and Douglas Hurd's failure to stamp hard on this affront to liberal democracy - why he was so weak has not yet been explained - but book-burning has a very bad image in Europe and this laxity in prosecuting under the Public Order Acts has caused problems ever since.

[Andrew Woodman]

I can't believe any government could be as stupid as to let this happen in the first place. I mean what has Rushdie done to deserve a knighthood ahead of hundreds of other authors? He spends most of his time slagging Britian off. The Pakistan reaction is way over the top but the whole situation just seems so unnecessary and shows the lack of common sense within this Government.

[Yogi]

I agree with TomTom. We have been very weak if not indifferent to the radical elements for far too long. Andrew Marr's article in todays Telegraph is also relevant here. Stop the aid money flowing to those countries where politically instigated mobs burn the Union Jack and the effigies of our Sovereign.

[Scotty]

"I mean what has Rushdie done to deserve a knighthood ahead of hundreds of other authors?"
Agree with you Andrew, my first reaction on hearing the news was that he did not deserve the honour and why on earth did he get it?

A blatant over reaction from Pakistan which I think must be seen in the context that it is going through a lot of internal turmoil at present, but it also shows a lack of joined up thinking from this government.

[TomTom]

which I think must be seen in the context that it is going through a lot of internal turmoil at present

There is NO excuse for Incitement to Murder and NO excuse for Pakistan in this kind of behaviour.

[601]

"it is going through a lot of internal turmoil at present"

When is Pakistan not going through internal turmoil?

[Scotty]

"There is NO excuse for Incitement to Murder and NO excuse for Pakistan in this kind of behaviour."
I did not EXCUSE those things Tom Tom, but I had a wee bet on with myself that you would jump in with such an accusation. I simple pointed out that with the turmoil in Pakistan you are going to get this kind of reaction from people posturing and using religion for political gain. I don't excuse it, but was just stating the obvious! The fact that I also stated that it was a blatant overreaction from Pakistan should have given you a clue.

[Annabel Herriott]

I agree with TomTom. Also, why was he given the Honour? I actually finished Midnight Children, because I refuse to let a book beat me. It is a very long heavy read, and I cant remember any of it now, apart from it was about these kids who were all born on a particularly significant date, and they commun icated with each other. Totally weird. I did not attempt to tackle any other of his works, feeling Midnights Children was probably the lightest of the bunch. Yeah - probably a brown paper bag was involved. Better ask Lord Levy.

[Simon Newman]

"We need to show Muslim nations that free speech is non-negotiable for us"

Agree 100% - of course our government (and the US government) completely failed to do this over the Danish cartoons; our recent track record has been appalling. Rushdie doesn't deserve a knighthood for services to literature, but that's not the point. It's not acceptable for other countries to be threatening terrorism against us - even if those countries are supposedly our 'allies'.

[malcolm]

Agree with all the comments on the absolutely unmerited award of a knighthood for Rushdie who has made clear his contempt for Britain and many Britons.
How far this country has sunk from the days of Palmerston who would probably have declared war on Pakistan for this!
More seriously how valuable is Pakistan as an ally? Taleban troops appear to be able to return there with impunity from Afghanistan and it appears to be as much of a safe haven for them as Eire was for the IRA.
Having said that, if Musharraf was deposed and Pakistan became more virulently anti western it might make our task in Afghanistan much more difficult if not impossible. This might explain the rather wimpy behaviour of our politicians, it does not excuse it.

[Edward]

Pathetic.

The political tradition of which I'm part would roundly, overtly and assuredly condemn the behaviour of people coming out with such anti-British rot around the world.

[TomTom]

The arts and media committee that proposed him for a knighthood is one of eight similar committees that make recommendations to the main committee, which then forwards the final names to the prime minister.

It was chaired by Lord Rothschild, the investment banker and former chairman of the trustees of the National Gallery. The other committee members are Jenny Abramsky, the BBC's director of radio and music; novelist and poet Ben Okri, who is vice-president of the English chapter of PEN International, which campaigns on behalf of writers who face persecution; Andreas Whittam Smith, former editor of the Independent; John Gross, the author and former theatre critic of the Sunday Telegraph; and two permanent secretaries, one from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and one from the Scottish executive.

[George Hinton]

Our Ambassadors are summoned to the Pakistani and Iranian Foreign Ministery's to be given a rocket. So have we summoned theirs to ours and told them to keep their interfering noses out of our domestic business?
Have we told the Pakistani chappie that we are severely ticked off with the comments about suicide bombers and justification, and demand an instant retraction and apology?
It really is time that that supine piece of jelly, NuLab's windbag harpy, put this country first and defended it with some robust commentary to those who would critique our actions. And, as for the FCO, those useless penpushers should be sent to Helmand Province to see real diplomacy, rather than be allowed to continue with their mealy mouthed platitudes and inaction.
We need to keep out of this little imbroglio, its not of our making and will cause NuLab problems, particularly if the sore is constantly scoured. It will be interesting to see how Brown/Blair handle this.

[Alan S]

Good stuff from paul Goodman and Stephen Crabb. Good for them.

[TomTom]

The other committee members are Jenny Abramsky, the BBC's director of radio and music;

Do I take it Jenny Abramsky will have Sir Salman on BBC Radio 4 - say a book programme, an arts programme - "Front Row", or for the Andrew Marr slot....or say readings friom his books on "Book At Bedtime" ?

Since Jenny did not think this K would cause any problems, could she tell us the last time the BBC had Salman Rushdie in its studios ?

[james cullis]

this is an outrage HOW DARE THE PAKISTANIS BURN AN EFIGY OF THE QUEEN n if they cant accept OUR DEMOCRACY they should be suspended from the commenwealth lts stand up for britain

[TomTom]

Finkelstein

I wonder why Finkelstein is trying to stir this pot and invite Americans to have their views on knighthoods known.....is he simply out to inflame matters ?

[Trevor]

For goodness sake. It's such a storm in a tea cup. Ask any ordinary Pakistani, and they don't give a toss. It's just bunch of crazy kids burning flags for the cameras. I'm sure it was suggested to them by the UK media.

As for the Iran and Pakistan government spokesmen. Well, they're just posturing over this to make them seem more crediable. We really just need to ignore them and quit having hisssy fits.

[Umbrella man]

Trevor wins today's Award for Complacency.

[TomTom]

Ask any ordinary Pakistani, and they don't give a toss.

That's because you are talking to the "moderate", "tolerant", "peaceful" ones...but it is the violent minority which is causing us problems....it did not take many to blow up Tube trains in London in 2005.......it does not take many in Iraq or Afghanistan........and as you know it is only a minority who cause this trouble....no doubt your Pakistani friends would report any potentially threatening behaviour to Special Branch.......

[ToMTom]

Obviously the British press was wrong not to publish those cartoons.......since they caused no problems for "ordinary Pakistanis"

[Trevor]

It's a media generated story. You guys just love this sort of thing, so the media provide it for you. You get a few hot heads in Pakistan burning flags - sure these guys might think bombing us is a great idea. So what? What are you going to do about it?

TomTom - the 7/7 bombers weren't Pakistani. They were Brits. Totally different issue.

Fact is, we'll aware knighthoods to whomever we like. The hotheads in Pak and Iran can protest all they like. They need to be ignored, not indulged.

[Simon Newman]

Trevor:
"TomTom - the 7/7 bombers weren't Pakistani. They were Brits. Totally different issue."

If you'd asked them whether they were British, do you think they'd have said yes?

[TomTOm]

TomTom - the 7/7 bombers weren't Pakistani. They were Brits. Totally different issue.

Brit = " 1. The young of herring and similar fish.
2. Minute marine organisms, such as crustaceans of the genus Calanus, that are a major source of food for right whales."

I somehow don't see the connection.

However, even Trevor cannot dispute that those who blerw themselves up in London had visited, made videos, and trained, in Pakistan......

Nor can he evade the simple fact that "British" is a Citizenship designation of subordinate importance to devout Muslims who see themselves as members of the Ummah and not some legal designation assigned to them by a secular state in the North Atlantic

[TomTom]

Fact is, we'll aware knighthoods to whomever we like.

The "we" is revealing....I feel no association with the honours system...you clearly do

[Trevor]

The honours are given by the Queen, and therefore the nation. If you're British, then that is "we". Not everyone who gets an award will be a Tory.. you'll just have to live with that.

[Trevor]

"If you'd asked them whether they were British, do you think they'd have said yes?"

Not the point. They were *British*, because they'd been born and grown up here. The fact that they don't identify with other Britons is a problem, but a problem for all of us, because these people aren't going to just up sticks and leave on mass tomorrow. They're here for good, so we better find some way of dealing with it. You can condemn these people all you like, but we better think hard about how we’re doing to contain this growing polarization.

Regarding their missions to Pakistan. OK. Pakistan is an ally in our efforts against Terrorism. How is it best to deal with that ally? Pull in our diplomatic resource every time their religious affairs minister says something stupid? Thankfully, the government appears to be looking at the bigger picture. 7/7s can be prevented with the co-operation (albeit it limited) of Pakistan. We should work with that, not respond to their silly statements on who the Queen knights. Musharraf is holding back growing pressure from hard line Islamic elements, so need to posture like this every now and then. We should simple ignore it.

[Sean Fear]

Actually, I think it is the point. If people reject the designation "British", and repudiate any allegiance to this country, how can they be regarded as British?

I wouldn't call Irish Republicans British, notwithstanding that they were mostly born within the UK.

[Trevor]

They are legially and formally British, regardless of what they think. If they hold another nationality and right to abode elsewhere; then that's a different matter. Just "thinking" you are another nationality, doesn't make it so.

Simply denying these people are ours will do nothing to resolve this problem. If people are born and brought up in this country, it is a collective problem which needs addressing.

[Sean Fear]

All sorts of bitter minority groups throughout history have been designated as being part of a larger majority (eg Irish Republicans, Basques, Kurds, ethnic Germans, etc.) without their actually being so.