Rushdie has long been threatened by Iran.
(Photo: AP)
Chautauqua Author Salman Rushdie, who was sentenced to death by fatwa more than 30 years ago, was attacked and injured in the neck while performing in upstate New York. A man “rushed onto the stage” at the Chautauqua town hall this morning and assaulted Rushdie and an interviewer, New York City police said Friday.
The 75-year-old writer was taken to a nearby hospital by helicopter. “Nothing is known about his condition.” The interviewer has a head injury
Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the Iranian revolution at the time, issued a fatwa to Rushdie for his 1988 work, The Satanic Verses, calling for his death. Some Muslims felt their religious sensibilities were offended by the work.
The perpetrator was arrested in the hall after the attack on Friday, the police said. The New York Times quoted a witness as saying: “There was only one attacker. He was dressed in black. He was wearing a loose black garment. A reporter from the US news agency Associated Press reported that the attacker punched or stabbed Rushdie 10 to 15 times.
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According to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, the intervention of a police officer saved Rushdie’s life. “And I want to commend the state police, it was a state police officer who stood up and saved his (Rushdie’s) life, protected him,” Hochul said Friday in the city of Buffalo. Rushdie is alive and getting the help he needs at a local hospital.
It was initially unclear whether the crime was related to the decades-old fatwa.
Rushdie had to go into hiding for a long time because of threats
At the time, the Ayatollah’s Islamic legal opinion not only called for the killing of Rushdie, but also of all those who were involved in distributing the book. A Japanese translator was later actually killed. Rushdie had to go into hiding and was given police protection. According to information from his publisher last year, the fatwa no longer had any meaning for Rushdie. He is no longer restricted in his freedom of movement and no longer needs bodyguards. However, the years of hiding did not leave him untouched. He worked through this period in the 2012 autobiography Joseph Anton, which was named after his alias.
The act sparked global outrage. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called the attack on Rushdie a “horrific event” and wrote on Twitter: “Our thoughts are with Salman and his loved ones following this horrific event.” British Harry Potter author Joanne K. Rowling also expressed hers in dismay and wrote that she hoped Rushdie was okay.
The author was born in the year of Indian independence in 1947 in the metropolis of Mumbai (then Bombay). He later studied history at King’s College, Cambridge. He had his breakthrough as an author with the book “Midnight’s Children” (“Midnight’s Children”), which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1981. In it he tells the story of India’s detachment from the British Empire based on the life stories of protagonists who are born at the precise moment of independence and are endowed with supernatural abilities.
In all, Rushdie has published more than two dozen fiction, non-fiction, and other writings. Rushdie’s style is referred to as Magic Realism, in which realistic events are interwoven with fantastic events. Nevertheless, he is absolutely committed to the truth. He sees this increasingly in danger, which is also the focus of his most recent publication of essays, which came out in Germany under the title “Language of Truth”. The writer, who has lived in New York for many years, braces himself against Trumpists and corona deniers. “Truth is a struggle, there is no question. And maybe never as much as now,” he said in an interview with US broadcaster PBS last year.
More: Salman Rushdie: “Everything is better than Trump”