Why all the fuss?

Around the same time, in the Spanish Muslim city of Cordoba, one Sheikh Musa bin Maymoun bin Abdullah al-Qurtubi was placing the finishing touches on his famous Arabic theological text called Dalalat al-Ha'irin (Guide to the Perplexed). The Sheik-cum-physician devoted part of the book to comparing the three Abrahamic faiths - Islam, Christianity and Judaism. He concluded that Judaism was superior to its younger spiritual twins.

You'd think that, writing this kind of hubris, Qurtubi thought himself some kind of rabbi. Indeed, he was. Jews regard him as Moses Maimonides. Muslim rulers of his day honoured him. Among them was Saladin, who appointed Maimonides Chief Medical Officer of his army. Yep, the Muslims liberated Jerusalem from the Crusaders with the help of an allegedly blasphemous rabbi!

Returning to Rushdie, it isn't just Muslim militants who campaign against his books. Rushdie's masterful 1996 book The Moor's Last Sigh dealt with Hindu religious chauvinism in India, and lampooned the head of Mumbai's Hindu fascist party, Bal Thackeray. The Indian government of the day banned the book, and Hindu militants threatened Rushdie with their own "fatwa".

I've looked everywhere on Google News. Apart from Iran, Pakistan and followers of a Malaysian opposition party, I haven't heard a peep about Rushdie's knighthood. Perhaps the hysterical minority of Muslims who love wasting their time and energy on protesting against writers have realised banning books and threatening authors achieves little more than making these authors damned rich!