Rushdie Lives But Free Speech?

The Iranian fatwa calling for Salman Rushdie's death always presented issues about free speech. Maybe too much time went by; maybe being American I thought it a problem of Great Britain; could be I again proved myself an idiot.

The Guardian published Margaret Atwood's op/ed If we don’t defend free speech, we live in tyranny: Salman Rushdie shows us that. She writes:

...Yet again “that sort of thing never happens here” has been proven false: in our present world, anything can happen anywhere. American democracy is under threat as never before: the attempted assassination of a writer is just one more symptom.

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Long ago, a Canadian member of parliament described a ballet as “a bunch of fruits jumping around in long underwear”. Let them jump, say I! Living in a pluralistic democracy means being surrounded by a multiplicity of voices, some of which will be saying things you don’t like. Unless you’re prepared to uphold their right to speak, as Salman Rushdie has done so often, you’ll end up living in a tyranny.

A reminder pluralistic democracy requires a certain maturity. 

The Bulwark's The Salman Rushdie Attack and the Protection of Free Speech has a longer response with details on Rushdie's history regarding free speech issues but comes to a similar conclusion:

Rushdie, it should be noted, has been merciless in his excoriation of Trump-era far-right authoritarianism as the preeminent threat to democracy. But, just as he has been able to condemn both Islamist fanaticism and Muslim-bashing, he has been able to condemn left-wing illiberalism along with the right-wing kind. The best we can do is follow his example—by emulating his intellectual integrity—and hope that his voice of moral clarity will be with us for a long time.

Integrity has been in short supply of late. Under a democratic government, integrity is a moral issue. Rushdie defending free speech, defending Islam against blanket condemnations demonstrates such an integrity.

The Article published Salman Rushdie, free speech and blasphemy: a very British problem with the particular perspective noted in its title.

sch 8/16/22