Rushdie Speaks Out!

Salman Rushdie
AFP / Alfredo Estrella

In an interview recently, "Rushdie says 'wrong lessons' [were] learned from his Iran fatwa ordeal" (AFP, July 22, 2015):

More than a quarter century after being slapped with a fatwa from Iran calling for his murder over his book "The Satanic Verses", Salman Rushdie says the world has learned the "wrong lessons" about freedom of expression . . . . Rushdie said some writers and other people were too cowed to talk freely about Islam . . . . "Instead of concluding we need to oppose these attacks on freedom of expression, we believed we should calm . . . [Muslims] through compromises and ceding," . . . . [which are] "politically correct" positions . . . motivated by fear . . . . "If people weren't being killed right now, if bombs and Kalashnikovs weren't speaking today, the debate would be very different. Fear is being disguised as respect . . . . Extremism constitutes an attack against the Western world as much as against Muslims themselves . . . . Keeping silent does not help Muslims."

And that's why I speak up.