Strangely I have yet to read Satanic verses. I did start Midnight’s children once when I was a kid but lost interest halfway. I think the real issue should be, his anti Islam rhetorics aside, does he deserve to be knighted? Does he stand alongside Tagore or Naipaul? I dont think so. The muslim world is crying foul, numerous conspiracy theories are cropping up. You dont usually go for them, but then you wonder if there is anything to it.
Maybe it helps if you have a fatwa on your head, your the unsung hero of the free press. But people have always had double standards on ‘free press’. I read on someone’s blog last week , ”The sentiments of the jews are considered, thus denial of the holocaust is a crime”. The English speaking world believe that the word fatwa means a death sentence. The word’s phonetics doesnt help it either, fatwa – fatwa, you can almost see the whip cracking down 
. Ironically one of the most neutral and secular newspaper in India is called ‘The Hindu’. Every time they use the word fatwa in their articles they make it a point to give in brackets ‘an opinion on Islamic law’. You are free to ‘press’, but I am not free to opine?
