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| Rallies in Kashmir to protest Rushdie knighthood | | |
Srinagar, June 22: Business establishments were closed and public transport stayed off the roads in this Jammu and Kashmir capital Friday as a strike to protest knighthood being conferred on India born author Salman Rushdie came into effect.
The strike, called by armed militant groups and separatist leaders, was only partially successful though with private transport vehicles and autorickshaws plying normally.
Attendance in government offices, educational institutions and banks was thin because of the non-availability of public transport.
Worth to mention that Rushdie's ancestors belonged to Kashmir and he has always made several references to the valley in his works. The plot of his 'Shalimar, The Clown' is entirely set on Kashmir -- its heritage, arts, lifestyle and political turbulence.
The author is back in the danger spotlight with the British government's move to knight him. Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini had called for his death in a fatwa following controversial allusions regarding the Prophet in his book, 'The Satanic Verses'.
The execution of the fatwa was later put in cold storage by the Iranian leaders after Khomeini's death.
‘Rushdie is an enemy of Muslims, and we wonder how Britain awarded him knighthood," said one protester.
Mufti Mohammad Bashir-ud-din, head of Kashmir's Islamic court, asked Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and the government to withdraw the knighthood to Rushdie and apologize to the Muslim world.
He said in a statement that Rushdie was "liable to be killed for rendering the gravest injury to the sentiments of the Muslims across the world."
Bashir-ud-din is a government-appointed religious head and has the authority to issue legal opinions and decrees on interpretations of Islamic law.
In 1989, Iran's then-spiritual leader, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa or religious edict ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie because his book, "The Satanic Verses," which he said insulted Islam.
The threat forced Rushdie, who lives in Britain, to live in hiding for a decade. Britain has defended its decision to honor Rushdie, one of the most prominent novelists of the late 20th century. His 13 books have won numerous awards, including the Booker Prize for "Midnight's Children" in 1981.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is split between Pakistan and India, but claimed in its entirety by both. More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have died in the conflict.
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