LONDON, June 20: Britain will not apologise for giving writer Salman Rushdie a knighthood, despite protests in the Muslim world, a minister said on Wednesday. Home Secretary John Reid said the government stood by the award, announced at the weekend in Queen Elizabeth's Birthday Honours List.

“I think we have a set of values that accrues people honours for their contribution to literature even when they don’t agree with our point of view,” he said. “That’s our way and that’s what we stand by.” He acknowledged that sometimes the choice of who gets honours was a difficult issue.

“We have to be sensitive, but I think that we take the approach that in the long run the protection of the right to express opinions in literature, argument and politics is of overriding value to our society,” he said.—AFP