"The British monarch lives under this illusion that Britain is still a 19th Century superpower and that bestowing titles is something still deemed important."
Well, given that it seems to have pissed you off, I'd say you deem it important...
Mr Brinkley was told that the honour countered attempts by both countries to build mutual understanding.
I don't know, I think that the leaders of both countries understand each other pretty well. Pakistan's leaders seem to understand that England isn't particularly interested in bowing to the whims of anyone who knocks on their door (the US, unfortunately, but not just anyone), and England's leaders seem to understand that Pakistan's leaders are a bunch of fundie nutters.
God, I'm reaching ten years here. It's basicly a reference to the title, there were a few verses that Mohammed supposedly added to the Koran as a means of placating a plotical group that he later removed. He claimed that Satan caused him to insert them into the Koran in the first place and they didn't belong.
I think they related to dieties formerly worshiped in Mecca.
Right, right. Ok. So it's the idea that he came up with those on his own (and dispatched them similarly) that was offensive? Hmm. I could think of dozens of instances in the book that were more offensive (such as likening Allah to a slave-driving imam), but that's fundamentalism for you, I suppose. Perhaps the metaphor was lost on them, or perhaps they stopped reading before they got that far.
Yeah, Rushdie has mentioned before that he of all people was the most shocked by the response because to him he was writing a book about something he considered beautiful.
Well, the primary linch-pin of Islam is the notion that Mohammed memorized and had written down the exact word of God as given to him by the Angel Gabriel. These words make up the Koran and it is viewed s the unedited, unsullied, uneditorialized word of God.
There is a second body of work, the name of which escapes me at the moment(Kha'tar??), that is made up of Mohammeds observations, interpretations, and opinions. Both are revered but Islam's entire claim to legitimacy is based on the Koran's purity.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-19 02:13 pm (UTC)Well, given that it seems to have pissed you off, I'd say you deem it important...
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-19 07:42 pm (UTC)I don't know, I think that the leaders of both countries understand each other pretty well. Pakistan's leaders seem to understand that England isn't particularly interested in bowing to the whims of anyone who knocks on their door (the US, unfortunately, but not just anyone), and England's leaders seem to understand that Pakistan's leaders are a bunch of fundie nutters.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-20 12:17 pm (UTC)That 90% of the people, on both sides, have never read.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-21 03:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-21 03:38 am (UTC)I think they related to dieties formerly worshiped in Mecca.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-21 03:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-21 03:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-21 05:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-21 05:20 am (UTC)There is a second body of work, the name of which escapes me at the moment(Kha'tar??), that is made up of Mohammeds observations, interpretations, and opinions. Both are revered but Islam's entire claim to legitimacy is based on the Koran's purity.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-21 03:42 am (UTC)