I think at this particular time with tensions running so high that whoever advised the Queen to do this just didn't have a brain! How many lives will be lost now because of this act of madness? What do you think?
It terrifies me, I am going to London with my children late August I am really thinking of cancelling. Last few bombs may have failed but these people will succeed at some point I have no doubt.
Al Qaeda threatens 'response' to Rushdie knighthood
Al Qaeda threat: Salman Rushdie (Getty Images: Sean Gallup)
Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri says the group is reparing a "precise response" to Britain's decision to bestow a knighthood on author Salman Rushdie.
"I say to [Britain's Queen] Elizabeth and [former British Prime Minister Tony] Blair that your message has reached us and we are in the process of preparing for you a precise response," Zawahiri said in an audio recording posted on an Internet website often used by Islamic militants.
Rushdie was knighted by the Queen last month in her birthday honours list, bringing condemnation from a number of Muslim countries and organisations.
The author is accused by some Muslims of blaspheming Islam in his novel The Satanic Verses" which triggered an international furore when it was first published in 1988.
The Indian-born Rushdie, 59, was forced to go into hiding for a decade after then Iranian supreme leader Aytatollah Khomeini issued a 1989 death sentence over the book.
Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in January 2005 he still believed the British novelist was an apostate whose killing would be authorised by Islam.
Following Rushdie's knighting, Iran said the death sentence still stands.
In the audio message entitled "Malicious Britain and its Indian Slaves", Zawahiri said Britain was hypocritical for giving Rushdie the knighthood under the banner of freedom of speech.
"Why don't they honour the British historian David Irving? The Queen of Britain ... did not honour him because she cannot rebel against the Jews, who are her masters," he said.
Mr Irving spent 13 months in jail in Austria following a conviction there for Holocaust denial.
Zawahiri also warned Britain's new prime minister, Gordon Brown, to alter his state's foreign policy.
"The policy of your predecessor [Blair] has brought tragedy and defeat upon you. Not only in Afghanistan and Iraq but also in the centre of London. If you do not understand this lesson, then we are prepared to repeat it to you," he said.
Four Al Qaeda-inspired British nationals blew themselves up on the London transit system on July 7, 2005, killing themselves and 52 commuters.
On Monday, a British court found four men guilty over a failed Islamist plot to set off bombs in London two weeks after the 2005 bombing.
At the end of June, just two days after Mr Brown took over from Mr Blair, two car bombs were discovered in central London. A flaming Jeep Cherokee slammed into Glasgow airport's main terminal the following day.
On Sunday, newly appointed security and counter-terrorism minister Sir Alan West said Britain faced a 15-year battle against Islamist extremism.
It terrifies me, I am going to London with my children late August I am really thinking of cancelling. Last few bombs may have failed but these people will succeed at some point I have no doubt.
Al Qaeda threatens 'response' to Rushdie knighthood
Al Qaeda threat: Salman Rushdie (Getty Images: Sean Gallup)Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri says the group is reparing a "precise response" to Britain's decision to bestow a knighthood on author Salman Rushdie.
"I say to [Britain's Queen] Elizabeth and [former British Prime Minister Tony] Blair that your message has reached us and we are in the process of preparing for you a precise response," Zawahiri said in an audio recording posted on an Internet website often used by Islamic militants.
Rushdie was knighted by the Queen last month in her birthday honours list, bringing condemnation from a number of Muslim countries and organisations.
The author is accused by some Muslims of blaspheming Islam in his novel The Satanic Verses" which triggered an international furore when it was first published in 1988.
The Indian-born Rushdie, 59, was forced to go into hiding for a decade after then Iranian supreme leader Aytatollah Khomeini issued a 1989 death sentence over the book.
Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in January 2005 he still believed the British novelist was an apostate whose killing would be authorised by Islam.
Following Rushdie's knighting, Iran said the death sentence still stands.
In the audio message entitled "Malicious Britain and its Indian Slaves", Zawahiri said Britain was hypocritical for giving Rushdie the knighthood under the banner of freedom of speech.
"Why don't they honour the British historian David Irving? The Queen of Britain ... did not honour him because she cannot rebel against the Jews, who are her masters," he said.
Mr Irving spent 13 months in jail in Austria following a conviction there for Holocaust denial.
Zawahiri also warned Britain's new prime minister, Gordon Brown, to alter his state's foreign policy.
"The policy of your predecessor [Blair] has brought tragedy and defeat upon you. Not only in Afghanistan and Iraq but also in the centre of London. If you do not understand this lesson, then we are prepared to repeat it to you," he said.
Four Al Qaeda-inspired British nationals blew themselves up on the London transit system on July 7, 2005, killing themselves and 52 commuters.
On Monday, a British court found four men guilty over a failed Islamist plot to set off bombs in London two weeks after the 2005 bombing.
At the end of June, just two days after Mr Brown took over from Mr Blair, two car bombs were discovered in central London. A flaming Jeep Cherokee slammed into Glasgow airport's main terminal the following day.
On Sunday, newly appointed security and counter-terrorism minister Sir Alan West said Britain faced a 15-year battle against Islamist extremism.
