European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 28, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes Anthony Lewis americans must relearn value of free thought Salman Rushdie can see no end to the terror called up by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. For the rest of us in the Western world there is an answer to intolerance and fanaticism. That is to understand our own values and accept the responsibility of de fending them. What values Are those the Ayatollah was explicit in rejecting them. When he refused last week to lift his death sentence on Rushdie he said he would not act to satisfy sellout  As Long As he lived he said he would not let the islamic Republic fall into the hands of the  Liberal values Are the ones at Issue Freedom of mind and word openness to contrary opinion and unwillingness to let the individual be swallowed up bythe state the party or the Church. Have those values been ringing by affirmed by Amer ican political and business and Church leaders in their response to the Rushdie affair not really. President Bush took a week to react to the death threat against Rushdie for publishing the satanic  then he said however offensive that Book May be inciting murder and offering rewards for its perpetration Are deeply offensive to the norms of civilized  Cardinal John o Connor of new York according to his spokesman expressed sympathy for the aggrieved position that the moslem Community has taken on this publication but dissociated his response from  the spokesman added that the Cardinal had not read the novel and had no intention of Reading it. In such comments there was no defense of Freedom. There was no understanding of the american principle that the most unpopular thoughts must be allowed expression because truth and Wise policy Are More Likely to emerge from the cacophony of Freedom. The message was it May be a bad Book a Book to be banned but killing the author goes too far. Sensitivity to the Hurt that words May inflict is one thing and a Good thing. It is another to Overlook the benefits of Freedom. Then there were the booksellers. At a third of Amer ican b9okstores the satanic verses was removed from display because the Chain owners feared violence. That without any sign that the store employees who might be at risk wanted to give Way to the Ayatollah threat. Harry Hoffman president of Walden books the larg est Chain wrote in the new York times that defending Richard Bernstein Freedom was the government s Job. Walden books is not Congress he said. Our peo ple Are not foreign service officers members of the diplomatic corps or  but Freedom cannot be left to the government. Least of All can responsibility to defend it be avoided by those who like booksellers and publishers Are in the business of words. In the end it was the writers who made the Case for Freedom of expression in the Rushdie incident. Their passionate defense of him and of principle shamed others out of cowardice. The flabby response to a vicious attack on Freedom of expression should probably not Surprise us. Despite the first amendment american history is full of at tempts to enforce religious and political orthodoxy. Just last year the last temptation of Christ came under heavy pressure. The Rev. Pat Robertson called the film blasphemous and in american and said that because there were jews in the movie company it would be perceived As a jewish affront to  during world War ii Jehovah s witnesses were tarred and feathered castrated and burned out of their churches because they refused to Salute the Flag. The persecution did not Stop until the supreme court in 1943, said the Constitution barred officials from prescribing orthodoxy through the Flag Salute. That fundamental decision was mocked in the 1988 presidential Campaign when George Bush made an Issue of requiring schoolchildren to pledge allegiance to the Flag. His Campaign was generally a assault on Liberal values. Americans have had to learn and relearn the value of Freedom. In 1928 a majority of the supreme court held that Rosika Schwimmer could be denied Ameri can citizenship because she was a pacifist. Justice Holmes in a dissent that has become the Law said if there is any principle of the Constitution that More imperatively Calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought not free thought for those who agree with us but Freedom for the thought that we  new York times writers closed ranks and not a minute too soon for a dictator to want to kill a person for his opinions is As old As Politi Cal Power itself. The likes of Castro Pinochet and their predecessors have persecuted and threat ened writers in their own countries but nobody in the United states has Ever been afraid to publish or display the Vic Tims works. The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini s death threat against the novelist Salman Rushdie born in India and living in London and threats against his publisher Viking Penguin inc., in new York City marked the first time in living memory that a threat against a writer caused trembling in the United states. The fundamental lesson perhaps is that terrorism worked or at least i worked for a while. The Call for Rushdie s assassination More open and blatant than such at tempts at repression usually Are disregarded National boundaries and caused even writers in the United states to seem afraid strangely complacently slow to stand up to an assault on the principle they should hold most dear. But when the sputtering ended and writers around the country publicly expressed Solidarity with the threatened novelist the collective National ethic seemed to assert itself. Intellectuals put aside their differences and joined in the defense of freedoms. Even the Bookstore chains backed away from their earlier decision to keep Rushdie s novel the satanic verses off their shelves and publishers in France and West Germany reversed themselves and decided to publish Chebook after All. For americans the main eventing this sudden change of state was a meeting in new York during which writ ers who often quarrel bitterly about political As Well As literary affairs symbolically shared the danger to Rushdie breading aloud from his novel. The themes struck by figures As varied As . Doctorow generally a leftist and Diana Trilling More associated with conservative positions were much the same. The 21 writers who spoke at the meet ing in lower Manhattan were saying that the booksellers who had refused to Dis play satanic verses and the publishers who had declined to publish it had lost sight of a Basic duty of citizenship to run a risk to stand up when Freedom of expression is under assault. Susan Sontag the president of Ameri can pen the writers group put it this Way we want to show our refusal to  in another act of literary Solidarity at least six publishers offered to add their imprints to future editions of the Book sharing the danger with Viking Penguin. Yet the question remains Why the Early uncertainty among the american literary Community the hesitation of some to speak out Why the slowness to respond to the Ayatollah s threats which were being reiterated in Teheran on the same Day that the writers were standing up to defend their colleague it s Clear that american writers have found their voice and not a moment too soon said Leon Wieseltier an editor of the new Republic and a participant i last week s writers forum. Earlier Wieseltier had been Crit ical of their slowness to respond which he explained this Way it s because they re Lucky enough to live in a society where they Don t have to experience certain fear. American writers Are among the Only ones in the world who Are not practice in being  and so he said the fear during the first week was shamefully obvious on the part of All kinds of writers who would t defend Rushdie on the Airor in  that fear illustrated How effective terrorism can be As a state policy. How else could the Leader of a Militar ily weak and economically beleaguered country half a world away have caused such fear among westerners the Rushdie affair forced people into a consensus on what terrorism is. This has not always been the Case in a world where one Man s terrorist is often wrongly or not another Man s Freedom fighter. And indeed some conservative commentators argued that Rushdie himself and some of his leading supporters have ignored or apologized for terrorism and repression in third world countries that the writers Felt suffered the oppression of the West. Still the overwhelming consequence of the Khomeini death threat was a Clear solidifying of the writers ranks a refusal to be cowed. The mood was summed up Well by a demonstrator s placard waved during a writers protest last week in front of Iran s Mission to the United nations. Iam Rushdie it said. 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