Pakistan and Iran made a formal complaint to Britain yesterday over the knighthood awarded to Salman Rushdie as protests against the author of The Satanic Verses continued around the Muslim world.

In London, the Iranian Ambassador lodged a formal protest, predicting that the award would “intensify the clash of cultures and civilisations”. The Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran also protested to the British Ambassador over the “provocative act”.

In Islamabad, the Pakistani Government summoned the British High Commissioner to the Foreign Ministry, where he was told that the Indian-born author’s knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours last week was insensitive and contrary to efforts to foster understanding between religions.

Britain in turn expressed “deep concern” at comments attributed to a Pakistani minister on Monday suggesting that Rushdie’s knighthood justified suicide bombing.

However, one senior British official said that the incident had not weakened the “very good relationship” with Pakistan. “It is a key ally of ours and we co-operate across a whole range of issues. The fundamentals of our bilateral relationship remain very sound.

“The nature of the relationship that we have with Iran is obviously very different. It is not a partner in the same way but, although the regime there is making these comments, I think there is much less popular antagonism and anti-Western sentiment in Iran than in Pakistan, where there is clearly considerable anger and concern.”

Rushdie, 60, spent more than nine years in hiding after Ayatollah Khomeini proclaimed that The Satanic Verses insulted Islam and issued a death sentence by fatwa in 1989. The spiritual leader of the Iranian Revolution died without repealing the fatwa, meaning that it will remain in force for as long as Rushdie is alive.

The author now divides his time between New York and London and still receives a high level of protection from the Metropolitan Police when in Britain. Four serious plots against his life were uncovered.

Yesterday an Iranian news agency reported that Rasul Movahedian, the Iranian Ambassador to London, met Peter Ricketts, the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, yesterday to deliver a protest against the knighthood. The Ambassador said: “The ill-judged policies of the current Government in office will only result in the further isolation of Britain in the Islamic world.”

In Tehran, Ebrahim Rahimpour, the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s director for Europe, summoned the British Ambassador, Geoffrey Adams, and told him: “The British Government’s insulting, suspicious and ill-considered act is an obvious sign of Islamophobia which has terribly hurt the feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims.”

In Pakistan, the Foreign Ministry said that Robert Brinkley, the British High Commissioner, had been given a copy of resolutions passed by parliament against the knighthood. “He was told that Salman Rushdie has been a controversial figure who is known less for his literary contribution and more for his offensive and insulting writing, which deeply hurts the sentiments of Muslims all over the world,” a spokeswoman said.

Britain in turn voiced “deep concern” over reported comments by Ijaz ul-Haq, the Pakistani Religious Affairs Minister. A Foreign Office spokesman said: “The High Commissioner made clear the Government’s deep concern.” Mr ul-Haq retracted his remark but said that the honour could motivate suicide bombers and should be withdrawn. The minister is the son of Zia ul-Haq, the military dictator who made death the automatic punishment for blasphemy in Pakistan and ruled from 1979 until his death in an aircraft crash in 1988.

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