A SOUTH Yorkshire peer has said he is "appalled" that Salman Rushdie has been awarded a knighthood, because the author has "blood on his hands".
In an astonishing attack, Lord Ahmed of Rotherham said the decision "damaged British interests abroad and also community relations here in the UK".
Lord Ahmed, Britain's first Muslim peer, branded the decision by Downing Street as "provocative", s
aying Sir Salman was "a man who has not only been abusive to Muslims, but also to Christians".
Harry Potter author JK Rowling or campaigning journalist Robert Fisk are more deserving of the honour, the Labour peer said.
The former Rotherham councillor said: "I was appalled to hear that Salman Rushdie had been given a knighthood.
"Two weeks ago the Prime Minister was calling for building relations between the Muslim world and Britain, then suddenly this knighthood is given to a man who has not only been abusive to Muslims, but also to Christians - because he used abusive language towards Jesus Christ - and also Margaret Thatcher."
He added: "The confidence that was being built within Britain with inter-faith work and community cohesion work...has once again been damaged because of this provocative decision made by someone in Downing street.
"This man not only provoked violence around the world because of his writings, but there were many people who were killed around the world.
"Forgiving and forgetting is one thing, but honouring the man who has blood on his hands, sort of, because of what he did, I think is going a bit too far."
Sir Salman was forced to live in hiding for nine years after Iran's late spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeni, issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill him for allegedly insulting Islam's holy prophet in his novel The Satanic Verses.
It was not until 1998, when the Iranian government said it would not support the outstanding fatwa, that the author returned to public life.
Granting a knighthood to the 59-year-old has enraged Muslim opinion around the world. In Pakistan, where effigies of the Queen were burnt, a senior government minister suggested the decision was a justification for suicide bombing.
And in the Iranian capital Tehran, a group called Organisation to Commemorate the Martyrs of the Muslim World said a £80,000 reward should be paid to anyone "who was able to execute the apostate Salman Rushdie".
