May 6: Two members of Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine, took the stage to a thundering standing ovation at PEN American Center's literary gala last night, capping a 10-day debate over free speech, blasphemy and Islamophobia that started in the cozy heart of the New York literary world and spread to social media and op-ed pages worldwide.
Accepting PEN's award for "freedom of expression courage", the magazine's top editor, Gérard Biard, summed up the publication's belief in the unfettered right to mock all religions, ideas and belief systems, and levelled a riposte at the Muslim extremists whose attack on Charlie Hebdo in January left 12 people dead.
"Being shocked is part of democratic debate," said Biard, who accepted the award with the magazine's film critic, Jean-Baptiste Thoret. "Being shot is not."
The $1,250-a-plate gala, at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, is the major annual fund-raiser for PEN, a 4,000-member literary group dedicated to defending freedom of expression.
But the dinner took an unexpected dramatic cast after news that six prominent writers, including Peter Carey, Michael Ondaatje and Francine Prose, had pulled out to protest what they saw as Charlie Hebdo's racist and Islamophobic content.
The writers' decision sent arguments and insults flying. Some 200 PEN members signed a letter of protest saying that the award crossed a line between "staunchly supporting expression that violates the acceptable, and enthusiastically rewarding such expression."
Others vigorously defended Charlie Hebdo and the prize. PEN quickly found new table hosts, including the cartoonist Art Spiegelman, and the writers Azar Nafisi and Neil Gaiman. Andrew Solomon, the president of PEN, opened his remarks with a nod to the "whale in the room", a reference to the debate, and the blue whale hovering over the 800 guests in the museum's Hall of Ocean Life.
"The defence of people murdered for their exercise of free speech is at the heart of what PEN stands for," he said. "So is the unfettered expression of opposing viewpoints."
Outside the museum, about two dozen police officers, some heavily armed, stood on the sidewalks as guests filed in - a reminder not only of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo.
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
