Adding Insult to Muslims' Injury

If protesters against British embassy twp weeks ago had know that the Queen-for whom the party was held- was going to title Salman Rushdi a "Sir", they would have been much more furious.

This made the criticized protesters think they were right.Following the decision to honor Salman Rushdi, the file of Britain's residence garden in Gholhak was opened again. Just like couples who consider a divorce after each time they argue, the extremists in Tehran start the case of Britain's residence garden every time they are upset with the British government's policies.

 What so many of these radicals involved in the dispute over the mentioned garden don’t know is that the Queen doesn’t know who she's going to honor as a "Sir".

Maybe at a time monarchy was a significant term in Britain but since Cromwell's time in the 17th century, the royal family has as much role in governing and policy making of Britain as Ahmad Shah had in Iran.

Every year the prime minister hands a list of some cultural, sports, Artistic etc. personalities to the Queen and she gives the title to them-as requested by the head of government- though she might not even know some of them as basically she is not in charge of any affair and on the contrary to what so many people in our country think, giving out "Sir" title is not political.

The prime minister's decision is made based on the actions or services of that person in a certain field.

 For in stance, there have been a variety of personalities who have been honored with the title, from pop music artists(The Beatles in 1960s) to British national football team coach after winning the 1966 world cup title, Manchester United coach, the manager of a successful department store, TV hosts, movie stars, directors, inventors, explorers, remarkable military officers, those who have done something for Britain's industry or exports, charity people, a Muslim (Lord Ahmed an MP), authors, artists, researchers, university professors and such personalities. Some politicians can also be named such as former prime ministers and foreign ministers.

The question is why Tony Blair decided to put Salman Rushdi next to John Lennon, Alex Ferguson, Margaret Thatcher, Lord Ahmed and the manager of Marks and Spencer's chain department stores just before handing the power to Gordon Brown the new leader of Labor party. Before talking about this issue it has to be mentioned that this is the second time that Tony Blair is in trouble with this list. Last year it came to light that some of the names on the list had made huge contributions to Labor party.

 Of course Tony Blair and other leaders of the party denied any connection between the contributions and the names on the list. But so many people thought Tony Blair's denial was more like a joke since those "charity people" were billionaire foreigners. But what could be Tony Blair's incentive to put Rushdi's name on the list?

 Apparently he wanted to defend freedom of speech. But there's a big problem about accepting this incentive and that is he did not pay any attention to defending freedom of speech during his period as prime minister.

If some other leaders of Labor party such as Michael Fewett, Tony Benn or Robin Cook had done so it could have been acceptable but it can't be accepted and sounds like a joke from Tony Blair who sets George Bush as an idol.

What is certain, Blair knew about how Muslims feel about Rushidi. And putting his name on the list is disrespecting one billion Muslims. With a pessimistic look it can be said that he might have put Rashid's name on the list to have compensated all the troubles caused by Muslims in his last days in power.

Undoubtedly, during the whole time he was in power, it was Muslims who gave Blair hard times. Opposition of fundamental Muslims inside Britain, the catastrophe in Iraq, constant difficulties with Iran and problems in Afghanistan did not let him have a clam day.

Therefore, it is understandable that he might have wanted to add insult to Muslims' injury                                                                        but what Blair didn't know at that time was that the committee that is working on solving the dispute between Israel and Palestine (Russia, the USA, the UN and the EU) would choose Blair as their representative.

Maybe if he had known his future position would involve him in dealing with Muslims again he would have thought twice before adding insult to Muslims' injury.