Knighthood
Rushdie was awarded a knighthood for services to literature in the Queen's Birthday Honours on 16 June 2007. He remarked, "I am thrilled and humbled to receive this great honour, and am very grateful that my work has been recognised in this way." His knighthood was part of the UK’s twice a year honours ritual “designed to recognise outstanding achievement -- is part of an ancient and complex honours system.” Rushdie’s award was concurrent with 946 honours which included 21 knighthoods. The knighthood list was determined by independent committees that vet nominations from the government and the public. The Queen and the Prime Minister only had a ceremonial role in approving them.
The arts and media committee (one of eight similar committees) proposed Rushdie’s honour to the main committee who then forwarded it with others to the prime minister. The arts and media committee was chaired by investment banker and former chairman of the trustees of the National Gallery, Lord Rothschild. Its other members were "Jenny Abramsky, the BBC's director of radio and music; novelist and poet Ben Okri, who is vice-president of the English chapter of PEN International, which campaigns on behalf of writers who face persecution; Andreas Whittam Smith, former editor of the Independent; John Gross, the author and former theatre critic of the Sunday Telegraph; and two permanent secretaries, one from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and one from the Scottish Government." Smith told reporters that the question of political outrage was not one they were authorized to examine, "Very properly, we were concerned only with merit in relation to the level of the award." All other aspects were to for the main committee to examine. The British Foreign Office which has a permanent secretary on the main committee announced that there had been no requests to gauge possible Muslim reaction to the knighthood. It was noted that Rushdie's 13 books have won numerous awards, including the Booker Prize for Midnight's Children in 1981, the Booker of Bookers prize, the Whitbread novel award (twice), and the James Tait Black memorial prize.
PEN International had been a constant supporter of Rushdie being honoured, believing that awarding the author (born in India) would be “seen as a positive step in British-Asian relations.” The director of their London chapter, Nathan Heawood said the group was shocked at the negative reaction, adding "The honour is for services to literature and a very belated recognition that he is a world writer, who was in the vanguard of a writing tradition that exploded in the 80s in South Asia. It seems a shame that a few lines in his fourth novel should have turned him into this hate figure. He has become a Guy Fawkes figure to be thrown on a bonfire whenever it suits a government to divert attention from what is happening in their own countries."
In response to criticism of the award by some foreign nations, the British government stated that Rushdie's honour recognizes free speech and is part of their "desire to honour Muslims in the British community." British Home Secretary John Reid also defended the award saying that the UK has "a set of values that accrues people honours for their contribution to literature even when they don't agree with our point of view. That's our way and that's what we stand by." Speaking about the reaction to The Satanic Verses Reid insisted that allowing such works was not a plot targeting Islam, saying "A lot of people were upset when John Cleese made Life of Brian. Others had been offended by Mel Gibson's 2004 film, The Passion of the Christ. ... have a right to express opinions and a tolerance of other people's point of view, and we don't apologise for that." In a similar light John Sutherland, emeritus professor of literature and former Booker prize judge, noted that Islam was not the only institution held up for criticism by Rushdie in his most controversial book. He pointed out that “For the writer of The Satanic Verses, which was extremely rude about England, it's certainly unusual .”
Rushdie was ultimately knighted in an investiture ceremony on 25 June 2008 which formalised his standing as a Knight Bachelor.
Read more about this topic: Knighthood Of Salman Rushdie