View Full Version : Salman Rushdie awarded knighthood
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I agree that his award of a knighthood is deserved, and were it not for the recent Iranian action in taking RN personnel hostage, I'd not think there was much political significance to it...
Just to point out, I believe that the honours system has 'categories' much like the Nobel system, and that Rushdie's nomination came from his literary peers, in the literary category. My understanding is that anyone can petition for someone they know to have a gong, but that it takes a certain amount of gravitas to get through the inspection process. But I think you are right, handing out awards to a bunch of blokes that get paid to play cricket and win from time to time isn't comparable to people that devote their lives to pointing out the foibles of mankind...
I feel stupid because i haven't a clue who this geezer is :cry:
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I see, sounds like a bit of a prat really.
Why does he deserve this award? For writing a book?
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Thanks for explaining it to me dude.
Gonna look very intelligant when i argue this point with my family later :wink:
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Lol, may have to do that. Then again i'm guessing most people share this view so i haven't got much chance of getting a reaction.
May have to go find myself an Islamic pub :D
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I think theres a couple of things which struck me when reading PP's post.. (and I dont want to get into a religion argument, if there is anyone looking for a fight hehe..), and they are both related actually..
Alot of other religions seem to live absolutely by the letter of their laws, with no scope for movement.. ie, its still culturally acceptable to demand the assassination of someone for speaking their mind. Whereas other religions adapt to the culture they live in. If you take something like Christianity, there are still the fundamental laws, principals and values in place that have always been around, which are the basis for the belief. But there are cultural things that have changed - If it was still by the letter of the law, men wouldn't be allowed to shave or cut their hair. Obviously, that isn't really culturally acceptable now, and so it doesn't really happen any more - but my point is that beliefs/faiths can move on and still work within the culture they exist in and still maintain the fundamentals on what they were based.
Someone also mentioned this the other day.. In our society, it has become acceptable to say things like Oh God etc, and use things like that as what could be classed effectively as swearing/very offensive without even thinking about.. And yet, one cartoon appears in a Dutch newspaper, and people are demanding blood, burning buildings, rioting etc... What on earth is going on in our world when a cartoon can do that? Or is it the other way round, that some faiths have become too passive? Or both? I don't know? It just made me think about the world we live in really!
As I said, thats not meant to start an argument, but just things I thought of when reading PP's post..
and yeah, i'll come down the pub too ;) hehe
[quote:5c0138350c=\"Belso\"]May have to go find myself an Islamic pub :D[/quote:5c0138350c]
LOL, good luck with that one... :lol:
Aaron - nice post.
I think part of the reason for what you can perhaps call a watering down of Christian attitudes could be the process of translation and integration into new cultures. As a document is translated, invariably passages are translated both literally and sometimes culturally, so as to be more understandable etc. However, I believe with Islam the Qu'ran has never (nor will never) be translated out of the original Arabic (I'm not judging whether this should happen either). But perhaps the fact that the laws etc still exist in their original form, and haven't been updated or reappraised through translation, contributes to what you described.
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[quote:faa79f08a7=\"PrivatePyle@Work\"]Aaron says that \"my point is that beliefs/faiths can move on and still work within the culture they exist in and still maintain the fundamentals on what they were based\", I say you're right, however the countries that pose the greatest threat to us today are those who entirely disagree with that statement..[/quote:faa79f08a7]
yeah - and I think thats WHY they pose the greatest threat to us. The world is moving on, and the religions which cant/wont adapt to cultural changes are being left behind - and its when they DO get left behind, but try to impose their views/values on everyone else that it gets messy and violent. IMO anyway ;)
And this is my greatest fear for America - that it is becoming, in a reactionary way, a Christian counterpart of the extremism seen across the Middle-East.
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I recommend you watch a documentary film called Jesus Camp. Within that there's a worrying statistic along the lines that if the fundamentalist christian right are mobilised to vote in a US election, they can pretty much decide which party/President is elected. Scary. But I agree that you can't classify everyone in America as falling under the same approach to Christianity. However, I also believe you can say the same about every religion/philosophy right across the world.
But surely thats the same with any group of people? If they have a large enough amount of people, and you mobilise them all, then that will be the end result. Whether its gun owners, car drivers, etc etc.
I have to say, I don't think its that worrying really.. And I could think of worse groups of people to be deciding the future of a country! hehe!
Lovefist233
14-07-07, 16:09
well I can't, religion has no place in government, thats why the middle east is such a sh*t hole, the different government are run by religious morons who only want to fight their neighbours
Yeah, but are those 'religious morons' people who actually have a faith, or are they people who are using the excuse of religion to attack their neighbours? And that brings us back to the whole 'some religions are culturally left behind' point - attacking your neighbours in the past may have been acceptable. But now, culturally, its not.
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