“The shock, the outrage.” Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the neck and abdomen in New York state on Friday by a man who has been arrested. The author is currently on a ventilator and could lose an eye. He had been the subject of a fatwa from Iran for more than 30 years following the publication of the “Satanic Verses”.
The former Minister of Culture said this Saturday morning on BFMTV “the shock, the indignation” she felt after this attack. For her, this attack “reminds us that this fight [de la liberté d’expression] must remain ours, this matter concerns us all”.
“We absolutely must not raise our guard against these dangers”
“We consider this case as a simple matter of fatwa against Salman Rushdie, a story between Muslims, when it concerns us all,” he explained on our antenna. “This story was considered outside of us when it challenged all the values of our world, all the values of the Republic.”
He recalls the “incessant attacks” on freedom of expression by Salman Rushdie “cultural centers attacked with deaths, libraries burned because they exhibited Salman’s books…”. Many translators of his book were also injured by attacks, even killed, such as the Japanese Hitoshi Igarashi, the victim of several stab wounds in 1991.
“There are many people who think that freedom of expression should stop at the door of their religious beliefs,” laments the former minister. This attack is “a reminder not to let our guard down (…) we absolutely must not let our guard down in the face of these dangers.”
Source: BFM TV
