Hey, looka this: the Guardian reports on Jennifer Cody Epstein’s letter.
[I]n a move praised by The Satanic Verses novelist Salman Rushdie, who has thrown his weight behind PEN and Charlie Hebdo since the start of the controversy, Epstein has asked for her name to be removed from the petition.
“The 1st protester to admit she was completely wrong,” tweeted Rushdie on Sunday. “Respect to Jennifer Cody Epstein for doing the honourable thing & admitting she made a mistake about #CharlieHebdo. Will others follow her?”
It’s true, he did.
He shared it on Facebook, too.
The Guardian again (Alison Flood is the reporter):
In a letter to her fellow signatories published in full by the writer Ophelia Benson on Free Thought Blogs, Epstein wrote that she was “misinformed and (quite frankly) wrong” when she made her decision to add her name to the list.
Flood quotes extensively from the letter, which is good – that’s why I was given permission to publish it: to get the word out. Salman helped with that!
H/t Mr Fancy Pants
Let’s hope that the comment thread on this post doesn’t turn into the previous one’s.
Kudos!
This is really good to see.
Granted, maybe it’s partly the magic of reduced expectations. What might have been better if a lot fewer people had looked before they leaped…
And fewer murdered cartoonists–not to mention secularist bloggers–would, of course, have been way, way better still, sure…
But still.
Okay. So I’m a bit jaded about all of this, now. And hell, I thought I was before. I’m beginning to think now I just had no idea…
But still.
Thanks, Ms. Epstein. And Ophelia. And, for that matter, everyone who had anything at all to do with Taslima’s airline ticket. And I guess that’s all.
… erm… my editor sez I wanted either ‘more had looked before they leapt’ or ‘fewer had leapt before they looked’ just back there…
(… so, well, I should probably have looked before I clicked. Or something.)
Some have taken the leap and are doubling down. I’m wrapping up an argument with one such at the Thunderdome even now.
@ 5 MrFancyPants
Sorry. That cannot be true. We are FTB. There is no dissent. We are a hivemind. We have always been at war with Eurasia. There can be no dissent. You are mistaken. All dissent is instantly quashed. All followers must embrace the party line. (Didn’t you get the memo? We can resend the memo if you didn’t get the memo.)
*goosesteps up and down the square listening to patriotic FtB music while Silentbob lectures from the podium*