“Barbaric”, “despicable”, “intolerable”. These are the words of the French political class to put into perspective British writer Salman Rushdie’s aggression on Friday, August 12 in upstate New York. The author of The Satanic Verses had been the target of a fatwa by the Iranian Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini for over thirty years.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Twitter “appalled that Sir Salman Rushdie has been stabbed while exercising a right we should never stop defending,” referring to freedom of expression.
Appalled that Sir Salman Rushdie has been stabilized while exercising a right we should never stop defending.
My thoughts are now with his loved ones. We all hope he is doing well.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) August 12, 2022
On the French side, Emmanuel Macron also reacted on Friday evening. “For 33 years, Salman Rushdie has embodied freedom and the fight against obscurantism,” the president wrote on Twitter. “Hate and barbarism just hit him cowardly. His fight is ours, more universal. Today, more than ever, we are at his side.”
For 33 years, Salman Rushdie has embodied freedom and the fight against obscurantism. Hatred and barbarism have just hit him cowardly. His struggle is ours, universal. Today, more than ever, we stand by his side.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) August 12, 2022
Within the government, Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak denounced a “barbaric act” on Twitter and praised “33 years of courage”. National Education Minister Pap Ndiaye hailed a writer as “a symbol of freedom and scholarship that no Islamist obscurantism will stop.”
All my thoughts to Salman Rushdie after this barbaric act. 33 years threat. 33 years of courage to defend the right to disrespect and satire, “weapons of liberty against tyranny”. Freedom of thought, conscience and expression must remain a daily struggle.
—Rima Abdul Malak (@RimaAbdulMalak) August 12, 2022
The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, described a “committed thinker”, “today the victim of an attack that is as cowardly as it is heinous”. For the leader of the Renaissance MPs in the assembly, Aurore Bergé, Salman Rushdie is “the true expression of freedom”.
“It is a symbol of resistance to Islamist totalitarianism, which has been attacked,” said National Rally President Jordan Bardella. “This attack proves that the Islamists will never disarm,” added Perpignan Mayor Louis Aliot, candidate to chair the National Rally.
“The religious fanatics who launched a fatwa against him are undoubtedly responsible,” said Insoumis MP Alexis Corbière. “Stabbed by Islamist hatred,” lashed out Communist leader Fabien Roussel. Boris Vallaud, leader of the Socialist MPs, condemned a “serious and intolerable” attack, while the leader of the environmental group in the assembly, Julien Bayou, castigated an “unworthy fatwa”.
For former right-wing presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse, Salman Rushdie embodies “free speech in the face of Islamist totalitarianism”. Interim Republican President Annie Genevard believed that “the struggle of our democracies must be waged without weakness against an enemy whose long-term intent is to diminish our liberties.”