As Literati Gather for Wounded Rushdie, Ghosts of Charlie Hebdo Will Be in the Room

New York’s literati are set to gather Friday at the New York Public Library in a show of solidarity with one of their own. The author Salman Rushdie was stabbed on stage last week in an apparent attempt to carry out a decades old fatwa, and now the scribes are intent on demonstrating their support. “Stand With Salman: Defend the Freedom To Write,” to convene in front of the lion-flanked Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, is being co-hosted by PEN America, the New York Public Library, and Penguin Random House. The president of the library, Anthony Marx, condemns “this brutal attack not only on a celebrated writer, but on the very ideals at the core of our institution.”Venerables such as Paul Auster, Tina Brown, Colum McCann, and Gay Talese, among more than a hundred others, will read passages from Mr. Rushdie’s writing while the fatwa’s target lies in a hospital bed, recovering from wounds to his eye, liver, and abdomen. The event is all the more significant because the literary world has not always stood with Mr. Rushdie, or his values.In the aftermath of the massacre at the offices of Charlie Hebdo that left 12 dead in 2015, PEN America, which Mr. Rushdie once headed, honored that magazine’s surviving staff members with an award for courage. An open letter authored by the writers Teju Cole and Francine Prose vehemently objected: It was signed by dozens of others, including a Pulitzer Prize winner, Jorie Graham, and the novelist Joyce Carol Oates. That letter explained: “To the section of the French population that is already marginalized, embattled, and victimized, a population that is shaped by the legacy of France’s various colonial enterprises, and that contains a large percentage of devout Muslims, Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons of the Prophet must be seen as being intended to cause further humiliation and suffering.”Mr. Cole and Mrs. Prose objected to PEN America providing “material that intensifies the anti-Islamic, anti-Maghreb, anti-Arab sentiments already prevalent in the Western world.” They wrote to “disassociate” themselves “from PEN America’s decision to give the 2015 Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award to Charlie Hebdo.”Six writers decided to withdraw from the PEN America gala held that year: Mr. Cole, Peter Carey, Rachel Kushner, Michael Ondaatje, Mrs. Prose, and Taiye Selasi. Mrs. Prose told the Associated Press that she “couldn’t imagine being in the audience when they have a standing ovation for Charlie Hebdo.”Mr. Rushdie felt differently. He called the dissenters “horribly wrong” and tweeted, “The award will be given. PEN is holding firm.” He characterized the dissenters as “Six Authors in Search of a bit of Character,” an allusion to the Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello’s classic “Six Characters In Search of an Author.” Charlie Hebdo’s editor, Laurent Sourisseau, recalled Mr. Rushdie’s support in recent days, writing: “We are going to have to repeat again and again that nothing, absolutely nothing justifies a fatwa, a death sentence, of anyone for anything.” Mr. Sourisseau, known as “Liss,” remains under police protection.In 2015, Mr. Rushdie observed, “If PEN as a free-speech organisation can’t defend and celebrate people who have been murdered for drawing pictures, then frankly the organisation is not worth the name.”

As Literati Gather for Wounded Rushdie, Ghosts of Charlie Hebdo Will Be in the Room

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