The Rant

____________________________ M oslem scholars had their collective feelings seriously hurt by the nomination of Salmon Rushdie to the knighthood for his lifetime production of novels "We will give 10 million rupees ($195,900) to anyone who beheads Rushdie," Islamabad traders' association leader Ajmal Baluch told around 200 people in one of the Pakistani capital's main bazaars. The crowd chanted: "Cut off the head of Salman Rushdie!" Earlier the Pakistani Ulema Council, a private body that claims to be the biggest of its kind in the country with 2000 scholars, said it had given al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden its "highest title for a Muslim warrior". "We are pleased to award the title of Saifullah [Sword of Allah] to Osama bin Laden after the British Government's decision to bestow the title of 'Sir' on blasphemer Rushdie," council chairman Maulana Tahir Ashrafi told AFP. _____________________________ Salmon Rushdie is a former

A top Muslim cleric in Indian Kashmir called on Thursday for books by Salman Rushdie to be burned and said Britain had to apologise for awarding the author a knighthood. A small protest also saw some 200 Muslim youths chant "Death to Rushdie" and "Down with Britain" as they torched effigies of the Indian-born British author, accused of blasphemy against Islam in his 1998 book The Satanic Verses. "I urge the Queen and her government to withdraw the award and also apologise to the Muslim world for conferring the knighthood title on Rushdie, as it has hurt Muslim sentiments," Grand Mufti Bashir-u-Din said in a statement. He also urged governments around the world to ban Rushdie's books and called on Kashmiri Muslims to burn them, arguing that Rushdie was still "liable to be killed for rendering gravest injury." Rushdie was sentenced to death in a 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, issued by Iran's late supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomein

New Gallup data show confidence in Congress at all time low Just 14% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress. This 14% Congressional confidence rating is the all-time low for this measure, which Gallup initiated in 1973. The previous low point for Congress was 18% at several points in the period of time 1991 to 1994. __________________________

by Michelle Malkin Jihadi’s Guide to Etiquette Rule 11: Never leave home without your matches, effigy-hanging sticks and death threat placards. You never know when they’ll come in handy. In Pakistan, dutiful followers of the jihadi guide have found a new pretext this week for an anti-Western bonfire party: the knighting of author Salman Rushdie in Britain. Muslim groups are burning Queen Elizabeth and Rushdie in effigy. The Union Jack is in flames. The Religion of Perpetual Outrage strikes again. It’s not just some obscure spokesman for a “tiny minority” objecting to Rushdie’s knighthood and leading the renewed calls for Rushdie’s death and Britain’s submission. Pakistan’s religious-affairs minister, Mohammed ljaz ul-Haq, bellowed: “If someone blows himself up he will consider himself justified. How can we fight terrorism when those who commit blasphemy are rewarded by the West?” He says he was misunderstood, but the message is as loud and clear as the inscriptions on the infamous plac

________________________ Note the religious affairs Minister of Pakistan said that suicide bombing the novelist would be justified to protect the "honor" of the "prophet." Moslems worry about the reputation of their beloved prophet. But what does all the murder and mayhem done in his name do to his reputation? What does this lack of tolerance for any dissent do to the reputation of Islam? Does anyone in Islam have a sense of humor? Ben Hoyle ( The Times Online ) Sir Salman Rushdie celebrates his 60th birthday today in familiar circumstances: he is once again the subject of death threats across the Islamic world. Eighteen years after the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to kill him, a government minister in Pakistan said yesterday that Rushdie’s recent knighthood justified suicide bombing. . . . . For nine years Salman Rushdie lived as a virtual prisoner, changing addresses constantly, and protected around the clock by British security at an