The Flight of the Intellectuals

A fascinating article in Slate about a forthcoming book by Paul Berman, called The Flight of the Intellectuals. The debate is new to me, but it centres around the figure of Anaan Hirsi Ali, a Somalian author whose life is currently under threat (along with a number of other intellectuals and - for example - Danish cartoonists). Academics, it seems, are now regularly physically imperilled. Side-sniping (the kind that has been directed at Ali) is condemned and analysed, in this instance in relation to the reaction to the Rushdie affair of the 80's.