Britain has condemned a threat by Al-Qaeda's second-in-command over London's decision to award a knighthood to author Salman Rushdie.
In an audio message posted on a Islamic militant website, Ayman al-Zawahiri said the group was "preparing a response" to the move to honor Rushdie, whose novel "The Satanic Verses" prompted anger in the Muslim world for its alleged blasphemy.
"There is no excuse for such threats or acts of violence," a spokesman for the Foreign Office said on customary condition of anonymity.
In the tape, whose authenticity could not be verified, al-Zawahiri also accused Britain of being hypocritical for giving Rushdie the knighthood last month under the banner of freedom of speech.
Officials in Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan have criticized the knighthood, with a senior Iranian cleric saying the 1989 death sentence issued against Rushdie by Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei is "still alive."
Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
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