Time to speak out about suppression

I am a writer. But no matter what my profession happened to be, I trust that I would still be moved to applaud Tim Rutten’s thoughts on Salman Rushdie and those calling for violence against him. (“Where Is the West’s Outcry?” June 23.) It is the person who threatens the right of free speech who is society’s enemy, not the woman or man who would exercise that right. To remain silent in the face of such patent barbarism is shameful indeed.

PERRIN MUIR

Silver Lake

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THE United Nations Human Rights Council condones “state punishment of speech that governments deem as insulting to religion,” British public schools decide not to mention the Holocaust in their textbooks and classrooms for fear of offending their Muslim students, and the mainstream American media once again abdicate their duty to protect the right of free speech under any and all circumstances when they fail to register the reissuing of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie.

Thank you, Tim Rutten, for reminding us which side is winning this war and how mindlessly the West is surrendering the rights and freedoms it has arrived at through centuries of bloodshed and sacrifice.

GINA NAHAI

Beverly Hills