Salman Rushdie, the writer whose writing led to demise threats from Iran in the Eighties, was stabbed Friday as he was about to offer a lecture in western New York, authorities mentioned. Rushdie “suffered an apparent stab wound to the neck, and was transported by helicopter to an area hospital,” state police mentioned in a statement.
An Associated Press reporter witnessed a person storm the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and start attacking Rushdie as he was being launched. The 75-year-old writer was pushed or fell to the flooring, and the man was restrained.
Joshua Goodman / AP
Rushdie was rapidly surrounded by a small group of people that held up his legs, presumably to ship extra blood to his chest.
Rushdie’s situation was not instantly identified.
Police mentioned that the suspect additionally attacked an interviewer, who suffered a minor head damage.
Video mentioned to be of the aftermath of the assault was posted on social media.
Hundreds of individuals in the viewers gasped at the sight of the assault and had been then evacuated.
“Our thoughts are with Salman & his loved ones following this horrific event,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul tweeted after the assault.
Rushdie was at the occasion to debate “the United States as asylum for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creative expression,” in keeping with the Chautauqua Institution.
“We are dealing with an emergency situation. I can share no further details at this time,” a Chautauqua Institution spokesperson informed Reuters.
Rushdie’s e-book “The Satanic Verses” has been banned in Iran since 1988, as many Muslims think about it to be blasphemous. A yr later, Iran’s late chief Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s demise.
Iran’s authorities has lengthy since distanced itself from Khomeini’s decree, however anti-Rushdie sentiment lingered. In 2012, a semi-official Iranian non secular basis raised the bounty for Rushdie from $2.8 million to $3.3 million.
Rushdie dismissed that risk at the time, saying there was “no evidence” of individuals being in the reward. That yr, Rushdie printed a memoir, “Joseph Anton,” about his expertise residing beneath the fatwa.
Hannelore Foerster / Getty Images
In 2015, Rushdie addressed the killings of 12 individuals at the Paris satirical journal Charlie Hebdo, saying the proper to free speech is absolute or else it is not free.
“Both John F. Kennedy and Nelson Mandela use the same three-word phrase which in my mind says it all, which is, ‘Freedom is Indivisible,'” he mentioned. “You can’t slice it up, otherwise it ceases to be freedom. You can dislike Charlie Hebdo. … But the fact that you dislike them has nothing to do with their right to speak.”
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