Rushdie knighthood (again)

Ophelia fisks some sinister crap.

Here's a fairly lame defence of Rusdies' knighthood:

"British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has defended the knighthood given to author Salman Rushdie, but says Britain is "sorry" if the award has caused offense."

Britain is sorry? The whole country? Speak for yourself.

Thankfully Benazir Bhutto isn't so mealy-mouthed:

"Bhutto said Haq had justified suicide attacks on a British citizen.

"The minister ... son of a previous military dictator who had patronised extremist groups, had done a great disservice both to the image of Islam and the standing of Pakistan by calling for the murder of foreign citizens," Bhutto said in a statement.

Haq is the son of military president Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, whose policies of Islamisation in the 1980s are often blamed for sowing the seeds of Islamist militancy.

Zia overthrew Bhutto's father, then Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, in 1977. Bhutto was executed two years later.

Benazir called on the government to dismiss Haq."

Which is refreshing.

Update: See also this on the soft racism of denying agency.