Issue 283

ISLAMABAD, June 22, 2007 – A leading group of Pakistani Islamic scholars on Thursday awarded its highest honor to Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, saying it was in reaction to Britain’s knighthood for Salman Rushdie.

Meanwhile a Pakistani minister who caused outrage by remarking that the award given to the ‘Satanic Verses’ author justified suicide attacks announced that he was set to visit Britain next month.

The Pakistani Ulema Council, a private body that claims to be the biggest of its kind in the country with 2,000 scholars, said it had given Bin Laden the title ‘Saifullah’, or Sword of Allah.

‘We are pleased to award the title of Saifullah to Osama bin Laden after the British government’s decision to bestow the title of ‘Sir’ on blasphemer Rushdie,’ council chairman Maulana Tahir Ashrafi told AFP.

‘This is the highest title for a Muslim warrior.’

Bin Laden has been blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people. He is widely believed to be hiding on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The group, which says it is working for religious harmony, urged President Pervez Musharraf to call an emergency meeting of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference to press Britain to withdraw the Rushdie accolade.

Islamists have burned effigies of Rushdie and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth for several days running in protests against the honor bestowed on the writer on Saturday, which allows him to call himself ‘Sir Salman’.

Pakistan and Iran both summoned the British envoys to their countries on Tuesday.

Britain hit back by expressing ‘deep concern’ over the comments on suicide bombings by Pakistan’s religious affairs minister, Ijaz-ul Haq.

Haq -- who later withdrew the remarks saying that he meant only that the award would foster extremism -- said Thursday that he planned to visit Britain at the invitation of a British delegation.

‘Yes, I may travel to Britain next month as a British delegation has invited me to guide them on how to engage khateebs and imams (sermon deliverers and prayer leaders) in a constructive dialogue,’ Haq told AFP.

‘The visit would also help clear many things and misunderstandings about my remarks about the knighting of Salman Rushdie by Britain,’ he added.

The British delegation met Haq on Monday and included representatives from Britain’s Home Office and Foreign Office with responsibility for engaging with the Islamic world and preventing extremism, he said.

‘I can confirm he did meet the delegation but I am not aware of any invitation,’ said Aidan Liddle, a spokesman for the British High Commission (embassy) in Islamabad.

Haq is the son of military dictator Zia-ul-Haq, who ruled Pakistan from 1977 until his death in a mysterious plane crash in 1988. His father introduced Islamic punishments to the country including death for blasphemy.

The religious affairs minister’s comments have provoked an angry reaction in Britain -- which on Wednesday insisted it was right to knight Rushdie for his literary career, adding it was ‘sorry’ if it had caused distress.

A comment piece in Britain’s Daily Telegraph said that if Pakistan was so angry about the issue, it should return the 480 million pounds (955 million dollars) in aid promised by Prime Minister Tony Blair last year.

‘If this is tainted money, it can presumably be returned,’ it said.

But in the Pakistani parliament Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League party, said that Blair was ‘personally and mentally against Muslims.’

Source: Khaleej Times