Author Salman Rushdie attacked on lecture stage in New York – Times of India

Chautauqua: Salman Rushdieauthor whose writing received death threats Iran In the 1980s, Friday was stabbed in the neck because he was about to lecture at Western New York,
One The Associated Press The reporter saw a man storm the stage at the Chautauqua Institute and stab Rushdie “10-15 times” while he was being introduced. The writer was carried or fell to the floor, and the man was stopped.

Later, New York police issued a statement saying that Rushdie had been stabbed in the neck.
“A male suspect ran onto the stage at a speech event and attacked Salman Rushdie and an interviewer at 11 a.m. (local time) this morning at the Chautauqua Institute in Chautauqua. Rushdie had an apparent groin wound to his neck and was taken by helicopter. was taken to the hospital,” the police said.
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“The interviewer suffered a minor head injury. A State Trooper assigned for the incident immediately took the suspect into custody. Further details will follow,” the statement said.

New York Governor Cathy Hochul later said Rushdie was alive and had been taken to a safe place.
“The event moderator was also attacked; he needs care at a local hospital,” she said during a media briefing.
The author, now 75, came into limelight with his second novel “Midnight’s Children” in 1981, which won international acclaim and Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize for its portrayal of post-independence India.
But his 1988 book “The Satanic Verses” attracted attention beyond his imagination when it issued a fatwa, or religious edict, by an Iranian revolutionary leader calling for his death. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,
The novel was considered by some Muslims to be disrespectful to the Prophet Muhammad.
Rushdie, who was born in India to non-practicing Muslims and is an atheist himself, was forced to go underground as a reward on his head – which remains to this day.
After the murder or attempted murder of his translators and publishers, he was provided police protection by the government in Britain, where he was in school and where he made his home.
They have spent almost a decade unable to hide, frequent homes, and tell their children where they live.
Rushdie began to emerge from his life only in the late 1990s when Iran said it would not support his assassination.
Now living in New York, he is an advocate of freedom of expression, especially launching a strong defense of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo after Islamists shot its staff in Paris in 2015.
The magazine published pictures of Mohammed which drew sharp reactions from Muslims around the world.
Threats and boycotts against literary programs Rushdie attended, and his knighthood in 2007 led to protests in Iran and Pakistan, where a government minister said the honor justified suicide bombings.
The fatwa failed to suppress Rushdie’s writings, however, and inspired his memoir “Joseph Anton”, which was named after his surname while they were disguised and written in the third person.
“Midnight’s Children”, which runs to over 600 pages, has been adapted for the stage and silver screen, and his books have been translated into more than 40 languages.

Salman Rushdie’s exclusive interview with TOI in 2021:

watch Author Salman Rushdie attacked on lecture stage in New York