Salman Rushdie: The Writers Boycotting the PEN Awards Over Their Honoring of Charlie Hebdo Are "Pussies" In Need of "Character"

Six writers have announced they will boycott the PEN awards, when they recognize Charlie Hebdo for courage in the face of Islamist threats (and perseverance after Islamist mass-murder).

The leftists offered a rationale similar to that offered by Garry Trudeau: To attack Muslims would be (and explain to me why this is not itself "racist") "punching down," which the Superior White Race ought not do.

"A hideous crime was committed," novelist Peter Carey generously concedes, "but was it a freedom-of-speech issue for PEN America to be self-righteous about?"

...

As short-story writer Deborah Eisenberg argued in a long letter to the executive director of PEN, satirizing Catholicism is fine because it "has represented centuries of authoritarian repressiveness and the abuse of power."

Islam in modern Europe, in contrast, "has represented a few decades of powerlessness and disenfranchisement."

Free Speech means attacking my enemies -- and only my enemies. Everything else is "hate speech."

Well, Salman Rushdie, who of course has been under death threats from Islamists since the 80s, has a hot take of his own.

Replying that the award would go on without Carey and the others, Rushdie responded in uncompromising language: "The award will be given. PEN is holding firm. Just 6 pussies. Six Authors in Search of a bit of Character".

The Daily Telegraph reports the further comments of Rushdie, who responded to the suggestion that France somehow had it coming, remarking: "This issue has nothing to do with an oppressed and disadvantaged minority.

"It has everything to do with the battle against fanatical Islam, which is highly organised, well-funded, and which seeks to terrify us all, Muslims as well as non-Muslims, into a cowed silence.

"These six writers have made themselves the fellow travellers of that project. Very, very bad move".

True, true.

posted by Ace at 06:38 PM

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