LONDON: Queen Elizabeth II on Wednesday gave British author Salman Rushdie the knighthood which caused protests by Muslims around the world when it was announced last year.
Rushdie, 61, was knighted for his services to literature.
When the knighthood was announced in the queen’s birthday honors list last June, it sparked condemnation from a number of Muslim countries and organizations, protests, and threats against Britain from Al-Qaeda.
“It’s been a long time – my first novel was published 33 years ago but I think the thing you hope to do as a writer is leave behind a shelf of interesting books and it’s great just to have that work recognized, Rushdie said after receiving his honor.
He added: “At this stage it’s certainly not a day to talk about controversy, it’s a day for myself and my family to celebrate this.
“I think it was a short-lived thing, I’m happy to say, and in my experience most people were very pleased. I certainly was.
After Rushdie’s knighthood was announced last year, a Pakistani government minister at one point suggested the award justified suicide bombings.
And Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman Al-Zawahiri warned that the terror network was preparing a “precise response to Britain’s decision to transform Rushdie into “Sir Salman.
In the subsequent furor, British government ministers stressed that they were sorry if people had been upset by the honor, but said it was for a lifelong body of work and refused to apologize for the award.
The Indian-born writer, who was raised as a Sunni Muslim, has lived since 1989 under the shadow of an Iranian fatwa calling for his death over his controversial novel “The Satanic Verses.
The author is accused by some Muslims of blaspheming Islam in the book, which triggered an international furor when it was first published in 1988.
Rushdie was forced into hiding after Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the fatwa.
Following the announcement of Rushdie’s knighthood last year, Iran said the death sentence still stands.
After nearly a decade hiding away, Rushdie began to appear in public more and more, eventually becoming a socialite fixture on the international party circuit.
Asked if, in hindsight, he had any doubts about writing “The Satanic Verses, he replied: “I really have no regrets about any of my work.
Rushdie’s second novel, “Midnight’s Children, won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1981 and was named the best novel in 25 years of the prize in 1993.
Speaking about his works, he added: “It’s difficult to choose between your books, you wouldn’t choose between your children would you. -AFP
