Undeserved respect

Islamic protests against Salman Rushdie's knighthood continue apace, a story that has attracted comment on other blawgs such as Belle de Jure and Charon QC. I agree entirely with those comments.

I have not read The Satanic Verses, but I have read other books by Rushdie, including the wonderful Midnight's Children, so I have no problem with his literary achievements being recognised, but that is not the point. Contrarily, I disagree with the anachronistic British honours system, but that is not the point either. The point is that no one should be required to do or not to do a thing just because of someone else's beliefs. If people want to hold a religious belief (and I use the word 'want' purposely - I think many want to believe despite what their rational mind is telling them), then that is a matter for them and them alone, and if they are offended by what the rest of us do then that is their problem, not ours.

Despite this government's best efforts, we are still lucky enough to live in a society with freedom of speech and thought, unlike the wretches in fundamentalist Islamic republics, and we must defend that right by refusing to give undeserved respect (to use the words of Richard Dawkins) to religion.