“Not supporting Boualem Sansal is fueling fear and totalitarianism”: the appeal of academics – L’Express

For more than a month, the writer Boualem Sansal has been imprisoned in Algeria. He is being prosecuted under article 87 bis of the Penal Code, which punishes “as a terrorist or subversive act, any act targeting state security, territorial integrity, stability and the normal functioning of institutions.” which could earn him life imprisonment. Boualem Sansal joined other prisoners, detained for expressing their opinion or peacefully exercising their freedoms. The Algerian regime is placing a real heavy weight on civil society, consolidating its authoritarianism in disregard of fundamental rights and freedoms, which have been severely restricted.

According to a little music that we hear in France, Boualem Sansal would however be “not an angel”, because he would have taken many “contestable” positions, thus suggesting that his arrest would be justified. Would we need to “agree” with a prisoner of conscience to support him and demand his release, when the only valid question is that of the freedom to express disagreements? You would also have to have never read or listened to Boualem Sansal to think that he would be a doctrinaire… Boris Cyrulnik, recalling that Boualem Sansal has scientific training, explains that the writer “decided to question himself and question the world around him.”

Illustrating this philosophical approach through his original literary commitment, Boualem Sansal absolutely does not claim to assert truths. Quite the contrary: through his work, he invites everyone, as he does himself, to question their own beliefs. Thus, to reproach him for his so-called political or historiographical “positions” is to make a misunderstanding which supposes that his books were not opened – or perhaps a little quickly. Indeed, since the arrest of Boualem Sansal, we have undoubtedly developed too much geostrategic considerations, and not talked enough about his work.

Message sent to everyone

In his novel Tell me about Heavenone of the two narrators, Tarik, declares: “The reader will seek, it will be his contribution to our redemption. Friends must serve a purpose.” In fact, Boualem Sansal sees the fictional space he created as a training field for democratic practice. To make this utopia a reality, he constantly calls for the assistance of readers of good will: this “informed reader [qui] seeks to deepen his knowledge in order to remain master of his judgment”, this reader who aspires to “real debate” without retreating in the face of “the intimidation of one and the other” (Rule in the name of Allah). By stating that “the opinion [de ses lecteurs] has the force of law in the joint search for truth” (Letter of friendship, respect, and warning to the people and nations of the earth), Boualem Sansal invites and encourages them to continue his work by making their own contribution.

Boualem Sansal will unfortunately not be able to respond, for the moment, to the readers he invites to dialogue: this silence reminds us of his unbearable absence and his unnecessary detention, since no power is capable of hindering the quest for truth and of freedom of which Boualem Sansal is today one of the most illustrious standard bearers. From the work of Boualem Sansal, by extending the avenues it opens, we can cultivate the attitude of critical vigilance of the reader towards fiction, and of the citizen towards ideologies.

The imprisonment of a writer for his writings shocks everyone’s conscience. Whatever opinion it represses, the crime of opinion means that the arbitrariness of power and partisan preference replace common law, in contempt of democratic values. It is a message sent to everyone: a thought police is watching and will weigh on everyone. It is a threat that is enough to silence any desire for critical expression. Imprisoning a writer is therefore placing a part of everyone’s freedom under house arrest.

Democratic plurality

The novelist and essayist Boualem Sansal is one of those free men who choose to forge in a work the space for a dialogue for the thoughts of all. For this, he is today detained by the Algerian authorities, accused of endangering national security simply by expressing his point of view. In France, Boualem Sansal is also vilified by some who designate him as a political adversary while he is detained and prevented from responding, which reveals their conception of debate and living together.

By his very arrest, Boualem Sansal speaks to us of freedom and urges us to extend a hand to him, because supporting Boualem Sansal means supporting democratic plurality, the possibility of intellectual engagement in the life of the City, the dialogue of works and the circulation of ideas. Not supporting it is fueling fear and totalitarianism. Not supporting it is encouraging violence and contributing to the intimidation of everyone. Not supporting it means silencing the spirit of dissidence and protest, threatened both in Algeria and in Europe.

This is not the time for lukewarmness or pernicious “yes, but…”. We must demand the release of Boualem Sansal because he shows us that freedom has a price. It is up to each of us to contribute our words and commitment by exercising a freedom of which Boualem Sansal is deprived. We owe him that.

We therefore ask all those who still doubt, all those who fear compromising themselves, to no longer hesitate to mobilize in favor of the release of Boualem Sansal, if only by disseminating appeals for intelligence, by reading his books and widely inviting people to read them. Through his work, Boualem Sansal invites each reader to contribute to the common creation of a space for free and open debate, based on the ethics of discussion, and to “complete it if necessary by drawing on their own space” (The Erlingen Train), that is to say by bringing to bear our own stories, our knowledge, our sensitivities and even our disagreements. How can we respond to this proposition with imprisonment, with hatred or with indifference? We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Boualem Sansal and all other prisoners of conscience, with all the more force since it is not a question here of committing to ideas, but to freedom, foundation of human dignity.

The authors: Lisa Romain is a teacher and author of a doctoral thesis on the work of Boualem Sansal. Hubert Heckmann is a lecturer in literature. Jean Szlamowicz is a university professor. They launch a site, Literature and freedomdedicated to Boualem Sansal.

First signatories : Marc Angenot (professor emeritus at McGill University), Patrick Bazin (general curator of libraries, former director of the Bpi (Centre Pompidou)), Arnaud Benedetti (editor-in-chief of the Revue Politique et Parlementaire, associate professor at the Paris Sorbonne University), Georges Bensoussan (historian), Russell A. Berman (professor at Stanford University and researcher at the Hoover Institution), Jean-François Braunstein (philosopher and academic), Bruno Chaouat (professor of French literature, University of Minnesota), Thierry Chervel (editor of the online magazine Perlentaucher), Eric Dayre (professor of comparative literature at ENS Lyon), Jacques Ferrandez (band author cartoonist and illustrator), Christine Goémé (radio woman), Christian Guemy C215 (painter), Danielle Jaeggi (filmmaker), Yves Jouan (poet), Michel S. Laronde (professor emeritus of French and Francophone studies, University of Iowa), Pierre Mari (writer), Eric Marty (writer and academic), William Marx (professor at the Collège de France), Max Milan (writer), Gunther Nickel (professor of literature at the University of Mainz), Antonio Augusto Passos Videira (professor of philosophy at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)), Armand de Saint Sauveur (editor), George-Elia Sarfati (poet, linguist, psychoanalyst), Pierre-André Taguieff (philosopher, historian of ideas), François Taillandier (writer), Claudine Tiercelin (professor at the Collège de France, member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences).

To sign the petition: https://chng.it/pk9mJc7gkR.