Unimportant?

Well, Salman Rushdie's 1988 novel the Satanic Verses has ignited tempers in the Middle East and elsewhere in the Islamic world with Great Britian being vehemently denounced for knighting Rushdie. "The British monarch lives under this illusion that Britain is still a 19th century superpower and that bestowing titles is something still deemed important," proclaimed Mohammad Reza Bahonar, first deputy speaker of Iran's parliament.

Of course, if it weren't something important, why is Iran and Pakistan going berzerk over the whole thing? It's apparently important enough to "justify" suicide bombing according the the Pakistani government. I never read the book before (adverse as I am to most fiction) but I think I just may have to now.