Author Salman Rushdie, who suffered years of Islamist death threats after writing The Satanic Verses, has been attacked on stage in New York state. Man suspected of the attack arrested.
The Booker Prize winner, 75, was speaking at an event at the Chautauqua Institution at the time.
New York State Police said a male suspect ran up onto the stage and attacked Mr Rushdie and an interviewer.
“Rushdie suffered an apparent stab wound to the neck,” the police statement said.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul told a press conference about an hour later that Mr Rushdie was alive.
He was taken to a local hospital by helicopter, but there has been no further detail on the extent of his injuries.
An Indian-born author, his work blended magical realism and historical fiction and are mostly focused on the links, conflicts, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, with a lot of them taking place on the Indian subcontinent.
Attack on #SalmanRushdie is horrible
it’s an attack on the foundation of freedom and democracy
Such attacks need to be condemned in one voice
ideology that cause such attacks need to be curbed decisively
Praying for fast recovery of the brave Salman Rushdie
— Kapil Mishra (@KapilMishra_IND) August 12, 2022
Where Is Salman Rushdie After Attack?
News outlets said that author Salman Rushdie was attacked on Friday in New York, US, moments before he was set to deliver a lecture. In the 1980s, he received death threats from Iran because of his writing.
The interviewer, Henry Reese, also suffered a minor head injury. Mr Reese is the co-founder of a non-profit that provides sanctuary to writers exiled under threat of persecution.
The suspect was immediately taken into custody, police said.
As Rushdie was being introduced, an Associated Press reporter saw a man attack the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and start hitting or stabbing Rushdie. The author was carried off or knocked to the ground, and the man was bound.
Salman Rushdie has reportedly been stabbed in the neck, airlifted to a hospital. pic.twitter.com/rrH6ZdGvpq
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) August 12, 2022
Mark Sommer, a reporter for Buffalo News, told the BBC News Channel that the attacker had emerged from the audience in a black mask.
A video posted online shows attendees rushing onto the stage immediately following the incident.
Iran has outlawed Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses” since 1988 because many Muslims view it as disrespectful. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late president of Iran, called for Rushdie’s execution in a fatwa, or decree, that was published a year later. Rushdie’s assassination has apparently attracted a bounty of more than $3 million.
The bounty over Mr Rushdie’s head remains active, and although Iran’s government has distanced itself from Khomeini’s decree, a quasi-official Iranian religious foundation added a further $500,000 to the reward in 2012.
The British-American citizen – who was born to non-practising Muslims and is an atheist himself – has become a vocal advocate for freedom of expression, defending his work on several occasions.
The British author William Dalrymple, who lives in Delhi, was among the first to respond and hoped that Mr. Rushdie wasn’t wounded. He tweeted, “A dreadful day for literature, expression freedom, and writers worldwide. Poor Salman, I hope he doesn’t get wounded and gets well soon,”
What Happened To Padma Lakshmi’s Ex-Husband Salman Rushdie?
When “Top Chef” host Padma Lakshmi first met novelist Salman Rushdie in 1999, she was awestruck by his intelligence and eloquence. Lakshmi compared Rushdie’s fame in India to that of Hemingway in the United States in an interview with People Magazine.
Lakshmi told People Magazine that he truly was the best thing that had ever happened to her. It was kind of incredible that someone of that magnitude and grandeur would even somewhat be interested in her enough to want to take me out to lunch.
He wrote about her marriage to Rushdie in her frank autobiography, “Love, Loss and What We Ate,” Lakshmi and Rushdie were married and had a relatively happy marriage for the first few years.
In Lakshmi’s words to People Magazine, “For me, it was amazing because I finally had somebody who understood me since he too was Indian and he was also living in the West, and he was very nimble in traversing those two worlds.” She, however, ultimately realized the turbulent nature of their relationship after only a few years together.
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