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What is so threatening about free expression?

The writer Salman Rushdie, speaking last year at the New York Public Library, offered this answer.

He said in a world of increasing authoritarianism, quote,

writing at its best has freedom.

It belongs only to the artist.

I think that's one reason why authoritarian regimes have so often gone after poets and novelists.

People who have no armies, people who often don't even command gigantic crowds.

And yet the danger of the voice speaking freely and refusing to accept the narrative

that power wishes to lay down for us, that's seen to be dangerous.

One week ago, Salman Rushdie was brutally attacked while on stage in Western New York state.

He remains in critical condition.

His attacker expressed admiration for the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Rukhola Khomeini,

who more than 30 years ago had called for Rushdie's death.

And while the Iranian government denied any involvement in last week's attack,

...