“British thought, British society, has never been cleansed of the filth of imperialism. It’s still there, breeding lice and vermin …”

Rushdie 2007 :

“When people ask me how the West should adapt to Muslim sensitivities, I always say – the question is the wrong way round. The West should go on being itself …

What I fear most is that, when we look back in 25 years’ time at this moment, what we will have seen is the surrender of the West, without a shot being fired. They’ll say that in the name of tolerance and acceptance, we tied our own hands and slit our own throats. One of the things that have made me live my entire life in these countries is because I love the way people live here.”

What a difference a fatwa makes …

http://ukcommentators.blogspot.com/2006/10/you-see-it-every-day-this-surrender.html

Rushdie sold out.

The man is no Naipul.

Short and readable yes. Also completely awful iirc.

Isn’t that the one about the brilliant, misunderstood novelist, exiled in New York, who has a passionate affair with a sexy young woman who just can’t resist his towering intellect, towering talent, and various other towering phallic symbols?

Made me want to vomit.

Midnight’s Children is magnificent though, I must admit.

But he has endured the next worst thing: middle class white hypocrisy.

That’s hilarious Sid. What a twat. Harry’s Place is a cess pit sometimes.

The barman says:

What is this? Some kind of a joke?

Isn’t anyone going to be happy just by that in itself?

And we should all know that that’s enough to fish Manning’s legacy from Guardanista style condemnation. For Brownie, Manning was not racist or homophobic. He was simply a victim of the ‘the usual (middle-class) suspects’ who told a good nigger joke.

What a pestilent little sewer that place is — and remember, they call themselves part of the Left.

To be fair there are a fair few people who have dismantled the little prick’s thesis in the comments, but it doesnt make any difference to that bunch of twats.

You heard it officially on Harrys Place folks — Paki and Nigger and Coon jokes don’t make you a racist.

The most readable (and short) Rushdie novel is “Fury”.
Very good.

It is of course ludicrous to claim that this honour is “an obvious example of fighting against Islam by high-ranking British officials.” Were this true we would not have seen a 2005 knighthood bestowed by The Queen upon Sir Iqbal Sacranie, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, described by The Guardian as the “Most Influential Muslim in the UK”.

Rather than criticise the British government, Iran should congratulate Britain for having recently raised a number of British Muslims to the highest ranks of British Society as members of the House of Lords. These include Lord Ahmed of Rotherham, the first Muslim peer; Lord Patel of Blackburn, leader of the British Hajj Delegation; Baroness Falkner of Margravine; and Baroness Uddin of Bethnal Green. See my blog for more: http://www.bloggingyoungfogey.blogspot.com

I’m glad the media didn’t bother covering this weeekend’s ‘British Oppression’ demo.

As for the Musharraf comment – true, he didn’t say anything, but I doubt this would have gone through without his approval. The man wants attention deflected away from him, I wouldn’t be surprised if this carries on in Pak for a bit. Most people will wonder what the fuss is about, a small bunch of troublemakers will continue to attract attention.

As for the MCB, clearly I spoke too soon. God help us from such stupidity.

Let’s face it, we all know why Sir Salman got his title.
It is because he is a Muslim, a prominent “intellectual”, and he was firmly pro-Iraq war. He also happens to be a smooth media operator who has been lobbying hard for the title.

Now if they gave out fatwas for rubbish books, now that would be cool. No more pulp lining the walls of Waterstones.

All this stink reminds me of the Brick Lane debacle of 2003 and 2006.

You think they read it before being outraged?

I managed Midnight’s Children (I was younger then and had more stamina)but never got far into any of the others.