Salman Rushdie’s Return to Fiction: A Troubling Reflection on Free Speech and Security in America

Salman Rushdie’s literary comeback with “The Eleventh Hour”, his first fiction work since a savage 2022 attack during a public lecture in New York, demands more than just sympathy—it demands sober scrutiny of the conditions that allowed such violence to occur on America’s own stage. This collection of short stories and novellas symbolizes not only personal resilience but also exposes the ongoing threats facing free speech and national sovereignty within our borders. How Safe Is Free Expression in America Today? Rushdie’s near-fatal stabbing by Hadi Matar—a man born long after the controversial Satanic Verses was published—proves chillingly that violent extremism...