By IRNA
New Delhi : Awarding Salman Rushdie with knighthood is clearly a provocative step by UK, Qurban Ali a prominent Indian journalist told IRNA in an exclusive interview here.
Qurban Ali said: "Salman Rushdie received several awards on his writings but other great scholars like Allameh Iqbal Lahori was never given Nobel Prize or any award by the West despite his great contributions to the world literature for his poetry and other writings were not only confined to Urdu and Persian languages. Also Iqbal was among the greatest Muslim philosophers in the later period and his thought was universal."
Qurban Ali who earlier worked with BBC and other media, while exposing the plot and unfair attitude of the West said: "Another eminent world leader and a unique ideologue like Mahatma Gandhi was never awarded with such titles.
But he expressed happiness that at last about 60 years after the the cruel assassination of the messenger of peace and non-violence UN has attributed his birthday on October 2 as International Day of Non-violence.
It was Gandhi who initiated the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa said Ali, adding that many world leaders including Nelson Mandela and Lech Valesa followed his foot-steps and admired him.
Even Imam Khomeini the leader of the Islamic Revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran praised Gandhi in his speeches but was never awarded by the West.
Qurban Ali emphasized that it was because "neither Gandhi nor Iqbal ever served the Western interests."
"Thus it makes crystal clear that why Salman Rushdie was awarded several times and now Britain crossed the limits by awarding knighthood to a person who serves the Western interest by hurting Muslims' sentiments through his book Satanic Verses, Ali pointed.
The British government could have avoided conferring knighthood to Salman Rushdie and instead worked for reducing the tension prevailing all over the world especially between the Western powers and Muslims, Qurban Ali concluded while advising the Britons.