"Was it worth it" --- should we even ask?

[Stephen]

One of the more telling moments in the memoir occurs shortly after the ten-year ordeal of the fatwa appears to have finally ended. After the Iranian government agrees to "stand down" on their threat to assassinate him, Rushdie gives a press conference in which he expresses regret for the lives lost and the violence committed in protest against The Satanic Verses, but also gratitude for the "ordinary people" who had defended the principles of freedom in the name of that book. Then comes the response of the press:

[O]n the BBC and ITN news programs the angle was "No apology." That was the British media's spin on the day's events. This social irritant and nasty piece of work had refused, after everything, to apologize for his awful book.

The lack of an apology evinced, in the lights of Rushdie's critics, a self-righteous refusal to own any responsibility for the "cost" accrued, in lives and public resources, for his right to publish The Satanic Verses.

Was The Satanic Verses -- or would any book for that matter have been -- "worth it?" Is the question of "consequences" even a legitimate one to ask?

[Stephen]

Kevin wrote: "Off the cuff here:
The Satanic Verses was just a book, like any other. Rushdie is a storyteller/commentator who is entitled to say what he wishes in a free society. And because he says what he says beautifully, he brings us something valuable ..."

I agree with you, Kevin. There's a valid question though, in "is free speech worth protecting at any cost?" Considered in the abstract, many if not most of us would probably answer, Yes. However, when applied to a particular work or a particular author/creator, I'm willing to bet that the question becomes harder to answer.

A work that one loves or at least respects as legitimate "art" is one thing, but what of it's a piece of rubbish, or is intentionally offensive or blasphemous? Protecting a Booker Prize winner is one thing, but should the same regard be given to someone like Mark Basseley Youssef (of "Innocence of Muslims" infamy)?

I know what my answer is to the question, but I'm interesting in hearing what others might have to say on the subject.

[Patrick]

That should be the test, really. To find a subject or author that offends or disgusts you greatly - then defend with your life their freedom to say those things which you find terrible. I've come across this quite a bit as a gay man.