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Journalism of Courage
Editor Ian Jack sets up a lively discussion through fiction and non-fiction with a telling anecdote about the return of religion to public life. As he writes, the television is broadcasting from Wash-ington, DC: 8220;President Bush in his State of the Union address is advising the people of Iran to rise against their repression by the 8216;clerical elite8217;8212;one department of the godly advising another depart-ment to get rid of a third department.8221; Jack reminds us that religion is everywhere, in-cluding in public policy in western countries. Britain just barely failed to pass a very controver-sial legislation that would have made it a criminal offence to even criticise any religious practice.
And the furor set off by the publication of a few cartoons in a Danish newspaper is well known. As an eclectic group of writers take forth the discussion from there, Wendell Steavenson8217;s piece is especially chilling. It tells of an Iraqi held as POW in Kashan, Iran, after their eight-year war 1980-88. Thayr believes he went to the battle-field to beat Iran8217;s Shiite designs, and keeps his re-solve intact in the face of brutal treatment by his captors. To motivate himself, he imagines talking to his leader, Saddam Hussein, discussing the great mission before them. Imagine, then, his be-wilderment when he arrives back in Iraq.
Also in the spring issue of the literary magazine is 8220;A Conversation with Orhan Pamuk8221;. Maureen Freely, who has translated Pamuk8217;s book into English, catches up with him in the light of the Turkish government8217;s case against Pamuk for 8220;publicly denigrating Turkish identity8221;, by speak-ing in an interview of the large number of killings of Armenians and Kurds. Freely takes her conver-sation from Pamuk8217;s book-laden apartment to the streets of Istanbul, his past, present and future captured in the shadows and voices encountered en route. Pamuk8217;s fiction has tackled this subject and he speaks of it once again: Turkey8217;s struggle to own its imperial past and Ataturk8217;s modernist legacy, to come to grips with its secularism and its religious character. Meanwhile, legendary book editor Diana Athill speaks up on behalf of atheists in wonderment over nature8217;s magical bounty.
