THE RUSHDIE LETTERS: Freedom to Speak, Freedom...

THE RUSHDIE LETTERS: Freedom to Speak, Freedom to Write edited by Steve MacDonogh in association with Article 19 (University of Nebraska Press: $9.95; 189 pp., paperback original). More than three years have passed since the Ayatollah Khomeini condemned Salman Rushdie to death for “The Satanic Verses.” The letters from 26 prominent authors in this moving collection are the result of a solidarity campaign conducted by a consortium of newspapers and international groups dedicated to his defense. The writers denounce not only the barbarous fatwa, or death sentence, but the complacent Western governments that pay lip service to human freedom while conducting business as usual with Iran while that sentence stands. Nadine Gordimer laments the failure of Amnesty International and other human rights groups to rally to Rushdie’s cause. Tom Stoppard points out the ominous implications of allowing a religious court in one nation to attempt to impose its verdict on a citizen of another country; Portuguese novelist Jose’ Saramago notes ironically that although Rushdie was condemned in God’s name, He has shown no inclination to carry out the sentence. In a reply to his colleagues Rushdie concludes, “We must win because we cannot lose; what is at stake is nothing less than our minds.”