ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s parliament has condemned the award of a British knighthood to author Salman Rushdie, whose novel ‘The Satanic Verses’ outraged many Muslims around the world, and said Britain should withdraw the honour.Pakistan’s lower house of parliament adopted a resolution condemning the award. ‘This is a source of hurt for Muslims and will encourage people to commit blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammad,’ Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afgan Khan Niazi told parliament. ‘We demand Britain desist from such actions and withdraw the title of knighthood,’ he said.
Farhana Khalid Binori, a Pakistani woman member of parliament from a conservative religious party, said Rushdie’s knighthood was an insult. ‘It is a slap on the face of Muslims. It is not acceptable at all,’ she said.