The arrest of Boualem Sansal is an ignominy, worthy of a dictatorship. It is easy to imagine that this writer's remarks concerning Western Sahara and Morocco could have irritated the Algerian government. But it was in no way an attack on state security and even less terrorism. Since when has freedom of expression constituted an existential danger for a state that claims to be democratic?
The world of Books is waking up and that’s good. But, beyond writers and academicians, it would be good for librarians to also make their voices heard. They directly reach a large part of the population through their vast network and the general public trusts them. Certainly, part of this public can feel solidarity with their country of origin. Nevertheless, the role of libraries consists precisely in defending, not this or that sensitivity, this or that ideology, but the very principle of being able to express oneself, without risking prison.
Lucidity and great courage
It turns out that I invited several times Boualem Sansal at the BM in Lyon in the 2000s. I was able to measure his lucidity and his great courage in relation to issues such as the rise of Islamism. Today he is one of the very rare writers, with Salman Rushdie et Camel Daoudto remind us without prevarication – to us who are supposed to have inherited the Enlightenment – the price of freedom of thought.
In a world that sees libraries increasingly monitored and attacked in the name of protecting this or that community, including in some states in the United States, it is time to campaign for universalism and its corollary, 'Rule of law. A universalism open to the plurality of opinions and traditions, certainly, but firm in its project of transcending sectarianism. A rule of law concerned first and foremost with protecting individual freedoms.
On these two essential points, which are their reason for being, the honor of public libraries would be to carry out, with one voice, the work of information and education. This would be the best way for them to help a writer who needs it, Boualem Sansal.
France
Books
