A hardline Iranian newspaper launched a vitriolic attack on the Queen yesterday for her part in awarding a knighthood to Salman Rushdie.

Apparently unaware that the Queen has no role in selecting names for honours, the Tehran-based Jomhuri-ye Eslami(The Islamic Republic) painted a picture of a debauched and corrupt Royal Family, and suggested that “the English hag” at its head was seeking a smokescreen for the loss of Empire.

The newspaper even suggested that the Queen, whom it described as “the offensive English royal”, paid Sir Salman £500,000 to write his novelThe Satanic Verses, which since its publication in 1988 has been regarded by many Muslims as an insult to Islam and the Prophet Muhammad but which is still a major seller across the world.

In its opinion column yesterday Jomhuri-ye Eslami said: “The insult of the English Queen for honouring a knighthood on Salman Rushdie has sent the clear message that from the point of view of England and its Queen, Rushdie’s act is a great and praiseworthy service to the slowly vanishing English Empire which needs to be acknowledged.”

The editorial continued: “This act can be seen as a cover-up to distract the public’s attention from the sexual scandals of royal princes and princesses who are infamous and detested even among the English population, a population who cannot wait for the end of this hated monarch regime which stinks of the Middle Ages.”

The paper praised the decision of Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa in 1989 imposing a death sentence on Rushdie. As Khomeini died without repealing the fatwa, it remains in force but the Iranian Government chose to distance itself in 1998 from what was an open invitation to Muslims to murder the novelist.

Seyyed Ahmad Khatami, a prominent Iranian cleric, told students during Friday prayers at Tehran University yesterday that the fatwa against Rushdie was still “very much alive”. His comments were broadcast on state radio.

Protests over the novelist’s honour continued throughout the Muslim world yesterday. In Pakistan the parliament renewed its call for Britain to withdraw Sir Salman’s knighthood and to apologise for hurting Muslim feelings.

There have been sporadic demonstrations in Pakistan’s major cities all week. The protesters have numbered in the hundreds rather than thousands but yesterday a group of traders in Islamabad offered a reward of 10 million rupees (£150,000) to anyone who killed Rushdie. An antiRushdie strike that was called by hardliners in Indian Kashmir closed many offices, shops and schools yesterday.

Hundreds of people marched through the streets chanting “Down with Britain” and “Hang Salman Rushdie”.

There were more peaceful protests nearer home. Leaders of Scotland’s 50,000 Muslims put forward a resolution condemning the knighthood.

Bashir Maan, Scottish representative on the Muslim Council of Britain, said that the award had been unwise and risked alienating the country’s Muslims.

“Honouring a man who has been so antiIslam is not a good idea . . . It is bad for the honours system in general. The feeling among people is that it should be taken back,” Mr Maan said, adding that those British Muslims not already alienated by the Iraq war and Britain’s other Middle East policies were now likely to desert the Labour Party.

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