Schwab Auditorium looked a little different last night, with extra police officers surrounding the building and a line of students hoping to be let in to a sold out audience with controversial author Salman Rushdie.

Rushdie came to Penn State to receive the inaugural Institute for the Arts and Humanities medal for distinguished contributions to the arts and humanities.

He also delivered the 2006 Lippin Lecture, sponsored by the Rock Ethics Institute.

Rushdie offered insight on artistic freedom and the modern role of the writer, while digressing to comment on social, political, and religious issues.

"A free society is not the same thing as a polite society," Rushdie said. "It has to be this way."

He spoke about recent controversies such as Muslim riots in response to a Danish political cartoon, American foreign policy and freedoms of speech.

"We have the precious right to abuse our own leaders," he said. "It may not be an attractive freedom, but it's an important freedom."

Rushdie discussed his personal troubles after the release of his novel, The Satanic Verses. In 1988, it set off protests and death threats around the world after Islamic groups said the book was blasphemous.

"Should you kill people because you don't like their books?" he said. "For the record, my answer would be no -- if you do not like a book, shut the book, and it loses its ability to insult you."

Rushdie said one thing he learned from the controversy was that religion has the enormous power to make normally intelligent people act stupidly.

"The great arts seek to slightly increase the sum total of what is possible to know, say and think," he said. "They do not achieve this by staying on safe middle ground."

He also commented on the global religious revival that has affected so many of his works.

"When I was in college, religion was so over. We didn't need gods anymore because we had sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll," he said. "And while we were busy with those things, the uncool people took over the world."

Some students came to the speech because they were already fans of his novels.

"He speaks the way he writes, with humor and wit," Uma Asher (graduate-history) said.

Stephanie Lawson (senior-marketing) said it is rare for a figure of his variety to speak at Penn State.

"People were probably enlightened by the things he had to say, and some people probably disagreed with him," she said. "But they're taking advantage of a great opportunity that is unfortunately also rare."