Rushdie has long been threatened by Iran.
(Photo: AP)
new York According to the US news agency AP, the author Salman Rushdie was attacked on a stage in the US state of New York. AP reported the incident in western New York on Friday, citing an agency reporter who was present. The “New York Times” quoted a witness: “There was only one attacker”. And further: “He was dressed in black. He was wearing a loose black garment. He ran towards him at lightning speed.” The perpetrator was arrested on Friday in the event hall in Chautauqua, the New York police said.
Police say Rushdie was injured in the neck. The police and medical emergency services were called to the event venue in Chautauqua, the police confirmed to the German Press Agency on Friday.
Because of his work The Satanic Verses (1988), Rushdie was once subjected to a fatwa calling for his death. Some Muslims felt their religious sensibilities were offended by the work. Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued an Islamic legal opinion calling for the killing of Rushdie and everyone involved in distributing the book. A Japanese translator was later actually killed. Rushdie had to go into hiding and was given police protection.
Rushdie 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.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
According to his publisher last year, the ayatollah’s 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.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has described the attack on Rushdie as a “horrific event”. “Our thoughts are with Salman and his loved ones following this horrific event. I have directed state police to further assist with the investigation if required,” Hochul wrote on Twitter on Friday. She thanked the emergency services for their quick response.
More: Salman Rushdie: “Everything is better than Trump”