Excerpt:
Junot Díaz, Lorrie Moore, Joyce Carol Oates, Eric Bogosian and Michael Cunningham are among the 145 writers listed as signatories on a letter protesting PEN American Center's decision to award its "freedom of expression courage" award to the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, because the award seems to endorse drawings of the prophet Muhammad and other images that "must be seen as being intended to cause further humiliation and suffering" among France's embattled Muslims.
"It is clear and inarguable that the murder of a dozen people in the Charlie Hebdo offices is sickening and tragic," the letter states, referring to the attack by Islamic extremists in Paris in January. "What is neither clear nor inarguable is the decision to confer an award for courageous freedom of expression on Charlie Hebdo or what criteria exactly were used to make that decision."
By honoring Charlie Hebdo, the letter said, "PEN is not simply conveying support for freedom of expression but also valorizing selectively offensive material: material that intensifies the anti-Islamic, anti-Maghreb, anti-Arab sentiments already prevalent in the Western world."