I’m sure Hitchens would have had something to say about the events of this past week, regarding free speech. In Spain, police arrested street puppeteers for performances thought to be threatening. Also arrested were a poet and a rapper. These events are part of what some are calling an overreaction throughout Europe to terrorism fears, as explained in this New York Times article.

In the same week, the good leaders of Iran (through the state run media) upped the bounty behind the death fatwa on author Salman Rushdie, placed on Rushdie in 1989 for his terrible offense of writing a novel. As many of you know, Rushdie was a good friend to Hitchens, and Hitch went out on a limb at the time (when others did not) to defend his friend. Hitchens accepted the invitation to read passages from Satanic Versus shortly after the fatwa was declared (an narrowly escaped a pipe bomb at the event). Hitchens discusses the topic in this 2010 interview: