Salman Rushdie has learned a great deal in the eight years since the Ayatollah's decree made him a marked man, but he had already understood why the right to speak freely is democracy's most fundamental right, the cornerstone of our freedom. He already understood that words and the ideas they convey offer us the possibility of change, and that without that possibility, self-government is a meaningless concept.
Totalitarian regimes seek to halt the motion of society.
That is why what happens to Rushdie should matter to all of us, why his fate transcends the issue of his personality, his religion, or his literary merit, all of which have been invoked to his discredit. Whether Salman Rushdie can go to the corner newsstand for a paper, book a table in his own name at a restaurant, or announce a speaking engagement in advance is a measure not only of his freedom but of ours. It will tell us whether we can really read what we please, whether we can grapple with ideas as we wish, whether we can be changed and make change. SO IT IS a pity that the anniversary of the Ayatollah's death sentence passed so quietly this year. It would be comforting to think that the author no longer needs defending, that the fact that eight years have passed, that the Ayatollah is dead, and that Rushdie has grown bolder shows the danger has past.