Three days after being repeatedly stabbed on stage as he was preparing
to give a lecture author Salman Rushdie is recovering, but his agent
says he suffered liver damage and is likely to lose an eye. The man
accused of attacking him has been charged with attempted murder.
Jeffrey Brown speaks with a fellow author and friend of Rusty's.
Salman Rushdie, the man and the writer and the wider impact of the
attack against him. Joining me now is a doctor. He's a Pulitzer Prize
winning playwright and novelist. He's also the current president
of the free speech organization, Pan America position previously
held by Salman Rushdie himself and Doctor. Thank you for joining
us. Salman Rushdie is your friend. I know, but you've also told me
that he's a role model.
Tell me what he is for you. What do you see in him? Well, I grew
up in a Muslim family. And you know, when Salman wrote the Satanic
versus in 1988 and 1919 89, the fatwa came down and he was, you know,
Price was put on his head by the Iranian government. Um, it was a
big event in my life, and it was a big event in my communities, Life
and my family's life and, uh, that book.
Had such a pivotal effect on my understanding of the force of literature.
What? What writing could do how it could could question the most
fundamental things you believed. And it could do so in in a playful
way in a satirical wave could do so in a brilliant way, and it could
get you into a lot of trouble. Um, you know, maybe that wasn't the
part of it. That was the role model, but but it was such a powerful
experience to read that book as a young. He is a young person, a
young writer as a young Muslim and it and it changed my
Life, and it
Really did shape so much of my body of work to come.
What larger story has been, he'd been telling in his writings, including
in the Satanic versus well as any great writer truly great writer.
He's been telling all kinds of different stories. But I think the
essence of what is at the heart of Solomon's body of work is the
power of storytelling and the power of stories and narrative to to
shape.
Countries to shape history's to shape, Uh, religion a way of thinking
for centuries, and one of the things that is so powerful about what
Salman has done over the years is that he playfully brilliantly,
uh questions and provokes and prods and and tests to see whether
or not those stories hold up.
You know, like you I have been with him in formal and informal settings
and typically seen little or no security. He made a decision about
how he was going to live his life even spoken to extensively about
it, But But it was clear that at a certain point, Salman believed
that you know he couldn't you know he'd spent almost a decade in
hiding.
And it had taken a toll. He wrote about it very eloquently in his
memoir, Joseph Anton, and there was a moment, which he decided it
was time to. It was time to live. It was time to go back to life.
I referred to the work that he's done at Pen America that you're
doing now and the other ways that he's worked in the in the area
of freedom of expression. This became important to him clearly, especially
after his own experience.
Yeah. I mean, I think understanding, you know, Pen Pen stood up for
him very powerfully at the time. And you know who who would understand
better the consequences of freedom of expression than Salman Rushdie?
Because of what happened to him, You know, I think it's such an important
reminder to all of us that, uh, the freedom to think and the freedom
to express that thought has to be a paramount value in our society
even beyond
The so called harms of speech, You know, because of course, there
are many people around the world who believed that Salman has harmed
them in writing The Satanic versus, But that can't stand alongside
the claim that he has the freedom to say, and to write what he must.
Well, what? What about the cause of expression Now? I mean, why does
this attack matter? In a larger sense? What do you see?
I think increasingly, you know, we're seeing diminished support for
the freedom of expression and increased concern about the harms that
speech can bring. And so on some level, there's a larger conversation
about controlling speech or controlling. Uh, what it is that's acceptable
to say, and there are lots of avenues by which that is that's happening.
This is really clear reminder that that debate is secondary, ultimately
to the freedom to express even Salman. I think
One said. If I don't have the freedom to offend you, then it isn't
really freedom of expression.
You told me you've got a quote from Salman Rushdie that you thought
was appropriate.
You want to read that? Yeah. Yeah. So this is Salman. A poem will
not stop a bullet. A novel cannot defuse a bomb. But we are not helpless.
The battle is not only on the battlefield even after Orpheus was
torn to pieces, his severed head floating down the river singing,
reminding us that song is stronger than death.
We can emulate Orpheus and sing on and not stop singing until the
tide turns and a better day begins. Alright. We all want to send
our best to Salman Rushdie in Doctor. Thank you very much. Thank
you, Jeff.