I am not part of any of this. I don’t care about the honour, the Rushdie saga had a precisely opposite impact on me than it did on Mr Bunglawalla, alienating me from Islam as it was being represented to me before I re-connected to it in a very different way. And though I support Rushdie as a writer, he clearly does not support the ideals or values by which I do so, so I personally don’t rate his honourable side.

What I get out of this is that the powerful will always dictate terms to the powerless of what they should feel, and the powerless will always have to pander to the feelings of the powerful. And this will seem just to oneside and feel alienating to the other. The expression of alienation will be taken as ingratitude and rudeness by the powerful. The self-righteous reaction from the powerful will then be seen as something even more sinister by the powerless. It is a bullying dynamic, and I don’t want to be part of it, but it is hard to know how to persuade others to leave it as well.

For example see
http://www.salaam.co.uk/themeofthemonth/september03_index.php?l=1

for one of the most insightful analyses of how Muslims in Britain responded to ‘Satanic Verses’ when it was first published.

Sixteen years later the response from Muslim quarters -for example the Muslim Council of Britain – is now more nuanced: “The granting of a knighthood to him can only do further harm to our country’s image in the Muslim world…in the face of such provocation, the MCB urges Muslims everywhere to exercise calm and restraint. The best way to honour our beloved Prophet is to remember him, and tell fellow human beings of his love, compassion and mercy”.

see
http://www.mcb.org.uk

“Rushdie was considered *brave, courageous and brilliant* by many western writers; that is, of course, until he was fatwa’d.”

PRICELASS LAST QUOTE, PRICELESS.

I have a feeling you are quite capable of feeling slighted

Of course I’m capable of feeling slighted, but when it happens I don,t threaten the *slighters* with suicide bombers.

Have militant Catholics bombed Dan Brown, lately?

And as for you critique of Rushdie’s writings; are you NOW classing them as mediocre merely as a means to escape taking a stand on the controversy?

Rushdie was considered *brave, courageous and brilliant* by many western writers; that is, of course, until he was fatwa’d.

Had Rushdie been Christian and written something less polished than The Satanic Verses about Christianity, you’d be squealing with joy and jumping up and down in your seat, the way you did during Beatlemania.

Consider: “A Pakistani minister”

and “cutting off ALL their foreign aid”

Who’s being extreme now old chap?

I think this is a bit extreme Sunny. Considering Andrew Marr has said the simmilar thing.

While I agree what the Pakistani government minister said was highly offensive reflecting the ireesponsible behaviour of the government of Pakistan anyway, yet, just because a country gives aid to another, it does not mean they have right to kick them in their backside as well.

As most of the people have agreed, the decision was not a clever one, but probably not something worth easting too much time on and we need to move on.

Now put the genie back in the bottle, please. Or be irrelevant.

Bunglawala is better at PR than Bari, and Bari is more acceptable than Sacranie. But for your average Brit none have a message that is relevant to their daily lives. The Arch Bish gets a pasting when he sounds off but who cares what Bungy and his mates say. Yawn.

Bunglawala and his cabal are thugs and bullies who have suppported murder and play the victim card at the merest hint of criticism. Inayat does not apologise for supporting murder or recant his call for censorship supporting as he does the right to offend (which he contextualises by acknowledging that book burning is offensive).

He is a good PR man as his non-apology as his post on Cif indicates.

Good point Jagdeep#104 pretty much nails it.

ZinZin (No. 51) and others are suspicious of Inayat

an insincere commitment of freedom of thought and expression

Over at CiF, those posting on Inayat’s article have been especially busy. Worth pointing out one comment by AllyF

Most of the rest of you. You hold Inayat Bunglawala to standards that are not demanded of any other CiF blogger. If, say, Gordon Brown were to write a piece saying ‘I was completely wrong about PFI, it was a mistake and this is what I am going to do to rectify it’ nobody would turn around and say ‘that’s not good enough, Gordon. You must also accept that you were completely wrong on pensions, Iraq, Independence of the Bank of England and all your other policies. You must prostrate yourself before us, agree with everything I believe and declare yourself to be a worthless piece of shit. Then and only then will we believe a word you say.’

He made himself look an idiot. Which is precisely what many of you are doing.

Too true. My old man laps it up.

(Although I am not, I repeat not, a fan of saag).

Thanks.

The fascinating and most truthful part is that this idiocy is what made him the man he is — this he states, and not only that, the entire British Islamist movement was birthed in its present form from this idiocy. To simultaneously loathe, despise, hate what gave you your meaning and the entire reason for your existence and identity accounts for many of the contradictions, hypocrisies, confusions and alarm at the core of the Bunglawalas, Sacranies, and all of the rest of them — read the MCB statement on the Knighthood of Sir Salman for a plain and startling example of this.

I thought it was a mea culpa piece. Inayat said what has to be said, I think. And he recognised he was in the wrong. What more do you want from him?

Can no-one seperate themselves from their past?

My atheist old man gets extremly bored whenever my mum forces him to go to the Gurdwara

At least we have the langar to look forward to, often with lashings of creamy rice pudding after wholesome and delicious dhall sabzi roti, saag if you’re lucky, and on kids day, chips and beans.

Even makes an atheist or agnostic look forward to a Gurdwara visit sometimes.

The only good capitalism is a free market capitalism without any regulations whatsoever. It’s the most healthy way.