you may all call me sir jon boy from now on lest my army of darkness sweep into town.

I daresay there are people who have been much more critical of Christianity who sit in the House of Lords, some of whom have said religion has no place in a modern society

The debate over whether the Lords Spiritual should have an automatic right to sit with the Lords Temporal being one instance

It certainly seems more acceptable for people within the British establishment to criticise christianity, than it does to criticise Islam.

The timing is undoubtedly calculated, but I'm in favour of that. It sends a message that Britain supports freedom of expression at a time when its principles seem most under attack. However if this really is a message in support of Rushdie's right to express himself rather than a celebration of his work itself, then it'll be interesting to see whether such an endorsement will extend to those areas of culture currently under attack from INSIDE Britain. Does a commitment to freedom of expression extend to a lifting of the current ban on the Manhunt 2 computer game, for example?

I think the timing is more to do with the fact that any rational person would get over something after 20 years

According to many muslims there should be no critical examination of Islam

Heres a perfect example, according to certain Hadith (Hadith are oral traditions written down approximately 100 years after the death of Mohammed, and now used as an explanation of part of the Qu'ran or complementary to it) Mohammed arranged his marriage to his last wife, or in fact married his last wife A'isha when she was 6 years old

The marriage was consumated when she was 9 years old

This is the basis for Iran changing the law in 2002 to make it permissible to marry 9 year old girls in that country

The Hadith were committed to writing not by Christian Scholars, but by Islamic scholars nearer to the lifetime of Mohammed than the bible was committed to writing about the life of Jesus

Any wonder that certain muslims will not allow any critical examination of their religion?

he shouldn't have been knighted, the only book of his i read was crap, he looks so smug and his wife is too fit.

He is divorcing his wife and any bloke who gets a woman that good looking whilst being so facially challenged deserves a bloody knighthood

Arise, Sir Lemmy

well, maybe if he didn't have a huge wallet to lure them in with i'd be more inclined to agree with you.

at least lemmy is charismatically ugly, rushdie just looks like a smug prick

Someday I wish effigies of myself could be burnt from Baghdad do Delhi.

Keep refering to yourself as Cardinal and it may happen sooner than you think.

Do I detect a note of wallet envy there?

He must have something about him. I remember seeing a thre-way discussion once on television. It was Rushdie, Carrie Fisher and another woman. I can't remember the subject of the debate, but I remember very clearly that the other two guests seemed to be falling under a trance. Eventually they gave up talking much and just gazed upon him instead, as though struck by real love for the first time.

I think he's a very decent writer, but not brilliant. I think knighthoods and other honours are handed out in too great a quantitude, and subsequently go to a lot of people who shouldn't really be entitled to them. A knighthood should be a real rarity, kept for the absolute cream.

Sir Ian Hislop. That sounds far better than Sir Salman Rushdie.

yes

Damn, me too

I wouldnt mind being a mill behond him

the power of a fat wallet in action

If you wish you could just become admin and change my name. The whole fancy titles phase of mine was so last year.

Hey hey hey now guys. . . there are lots of good muslims. Turkey is a secular republic. Pakistan isn't bad either. I've met some nice people from Dubai and other parts of the UAE. Jihadists are in the minority.

Noone said there were no good muslims
The point being made was that in the main muslims will not stand for any critical examination of their religion or criticism thus abrogating the inalienable right to free speech
The question that should be asked maybe is, is Islam compatible with an open and democratic society
Name one Islamic democracy........

Turkey?