To have a pen, said Voltaire, is to have war, and Orhan Pamuk is learning this truth.

To have a pen, said Voltaire, is to have war, and Orhan Pamuk is learning this truth. He is Turkey's most famous writer, author of prize-winning novels. Published last year, his novel Snow attacks Islamism, and he has said that fundamentalists like Osama bin Laden are "a danger to the world." But in an interview with a Swiss paper he pointed out that Turks have killed a million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds, "and nobody but me dares to talk about it." The response has been to charge him with "insulting the country's national character," for which he faces a prison sentence of three years. And here's a fine irony--in another interview he pauses to swipe at Oriana Fallaci, the renowned Italian journalist who argues with her usual verve that Islamism is turning Europe into Eurabia, a continent in its own image. According to Pamuk, this is a "fanciful construct," but it has been enough for an Italian judge to indict her for vilipendio, or vilification, of a religion admitted by the state. This carries a two-year sentence. Different perspectives, same legal jackboot. It was that way when they put Voltaire inside for speaking out.