Kunzru Speaks Up

"The idea that it is some kind of calculated insult is an absurdity. The real insult - to the intelligence and decency of 'the world's 1.5 billion Muslims', for whom people such as Mohammed Ejaz ul-Haq presume to speak - comes from the ignorance and paranoia of leaders who feel so threatened by a novelist that they'll call for him to be killed."

- Hari Kunzru, on the protests against Rushdie's knighthood

Update: In Index on Censorship, Jo Glanville writes: "Let’s get one thing straight. This is not about Islam – it’s a recognition of the achievements of one of Britain’s finest writers, a writer who led a solitary, persecuted life for many years because of death threats against him. No novelist sets out on their career aiming for a knighthood. It is in fact ironic that Rushdie – an iconoclast and outsider as most artists are – should be embraced by the establishment."