The author, who was giving a lecture, was stabbed in the neck.
Satanic Verses author, Salman Rushdie, has been rushed to hospital after he was stabbed in the neck on Friday, August 12th, by a man who rushed the stage as he was about to give a lecture in western New York.
According to the Associated Press, a man confronted Rushdie on stage at the Chautauqua Institution and punched, and stabbed him 10 to 15 times as he was being introduced. The author fell to the floor before the assailant was arrested. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said later that he was alive and “getting the care he needs.”
Rushdie has been a target since the publication of his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses. The book was viewed as blasphemous by many Muslims, who saw one character from the book as an insult to the Prophet Muhammad, among other objections. Around the world, often-violent protests erupted against Rushdie, who was born in India to a Muslim family. One riot killed 12 people in his hometown of Mumbai.
The book was banned in Iran, where the late leader Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death. Khomeini died that same year.
He has been a prominent spokesman for free expression and liberal causes. He is a former president of PEN America, which said it was “reeling from shock and horror” at the attack.
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