By DPA
Islamabad : Pakistani parliament Monday unanimously condemned Britain's decision to knight Indian-born British author Salman Rushdie, who for years was a target of death threats over alleged insults to Prophet Mohammed in a late 1980s controversial novel.
The denunciation came in a resolution moved by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League party in the National Assembly, the lower house of the parliament.
"Britain's decision will encourage Rushdie who has hurt the sentiments of Muslims around the world," Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afgan said and warned that the move could damage the efforts for a dialogue between Islam and the West.
Britain Saturday announced the knighthood of Rushdie, whose book "The Satanic Verses" had sparked angry protests in Pakistan and other Muslim countries around the world.
In 1989, the spiritual leader of Iran's Islamic revolution Ayatollah Khomeini issued a death sentence against Rushdie for blasphemy. The fatwa was annulled in 2001 by Iran's former President Mohammad Khatami, who said the country had no intention of carrying out the sentence.
However, Iran on Sunday condemned the knighting of Rushdie.
"Awarding one of the most hated persons within the Islamic world indicates Britain's hostility towards Islam and will put that country against Islamic societies," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said.
The conservative as well as liberal members of the Pakistani parliament supported the resolution, which also demanded the British government withdraw the title and even Rushdie's citizenship.