Another victim of Islamist extremism? Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, attacked during book event
The 75-year-old, who was born in Bombay has been in the middle of controversy for many decades due to his novel, ‘The Satanic Verses’. The novel was considered by some clerics as disrespectful to the Prophet Mohammed.
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New York, August 13: The Indian-origin best-selling author Salman Rushdie, who has been receiving Islamist death threats for years for writing the novel, 'The Satanic Verses', has been brutally attacked at a book event in New York.
He was attacked when he was giving a lecture at Chautauqua Institution in the US. As per the eyewitness, the incident occurred minutes after the author took his seat on the stage and was about to introduce. A man jumped up on the stage and started punching and stabbing Rushdie. He was stabbed in the neck and abdomen.
Within no minutes, several members of the staff at the institution and audience members rushed the suspect and took him to the ground. The Police have arrested the accused who has been identified as 24-year-old Hadi Matar.
A doctor in the audience administered medical care until emergency first responders arrived. Then Rushdie was then airlifted to the hospital. As per the hospital, Rushdie suffered severed nerves in an arm and damage to his liver, and could lose of an eye. Rushdie was being put on ventilator support.
"The news is not good," Andrew Wylie, his agent, wrote in an email. "Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed, and his liver was stabbed and damaged."
Who is Salman Rushdie?
The 75-year-old, who was born in Bombay has been in the middle of controversy for many decades due to his novel, ‘The Satanic Verses’. The novel was considered by some clerics as disrespectful to the Prophet Mohammed.
The book was banned in 1988 in many countries including India. Interestingly, India was the first country to ban the book.
In February 13, 1989, the American Cultural Center in Islamabad was attacked after the book was published in the US. On the very next day, ran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini even issued a fatwa, calling for Rushdie’s death. Even a bounty of $3 million was offered to anyone who kills Rushdie.
In 1991, Rushedie's Japanese and Italian book translators were hacked to death. Two years later, the book's Turkish translator Aziz Nesin was the intended target of a mob of arsonists who set fire to the Madimak Hotel after Friday prayers on July 2, 1993, in Sivas, Turkey, killing 37 people, mostly Alevi scholars, poets and musicians.