“There are no innocents.” It’s a Biblical phrase with frightening new life in the age of modern terror. Soyinka says that a vision of a world divided between believers and infidels, between followers and enemies, is an old one but one that is re-gaining currency — fueled by the religious fundamentalism in the Middle East and by a President in this country who laces his rhetoric with evangelical zeal.
Soyinka is used to raising hackles with his political views. This Nigerian born writer spent nearly two years in solitary confinement for speaking out against his government. 20 year later, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Now, 20 years after that, he is turning his political and creative energies to rejecting terrorism and issuing a fatwa against fear.
Guests:
Wole Soyinka, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986 and author of “Climate of Fear: The Quest for Dignity in a Dehumanized World.”