By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
Lucknow : The British government has offended Muslims all over the world by bestowing a knighthood on Salman Rushdie, Muslim leaders and Ulema said here Monday.
The Ulema Council of India said the decision to honour India-born Rushdie reflects the anti-Islamic attitude of the British government.
"Salman Rushdie is a detested figure among Muslims. The British government has hurt Muslim feelings by honouring a person who is facing a fatwa for blasphemous writings," Maulana Abul Hasan of the Ulema council said.
Several Muslim organisations, including the Islamic Centre of India, All India Sunni Board and the Ulema Council of India, sent Sunday a joint statement to the British High Commission in New Delhi, condemning Rushdie's knighthood.
Rushdie, who has evoked Muslim ire and death fatwa from Iran's then-spiritual leader, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for his blasphemous novel The Satanic Verses published in 1989, now lives in New York with his wife Padma Lakshmi.