Author Salman Rushdie, 75, was stabbed Friday just before he was about to give a lecture in western New York, according to an Associated Press reporter who allegedly witnessed the incident.
“The Satanic Verses” author was being introduced when a man stormed a lecture stage at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, N.Y., and began punching and stabbing him, said the AP. While Rushdie was on the floor, the man who allegedly attacked him was restrained.
A native of Mumbai, India, Rushdie was the subject of death threats from Iran in the 1980s due to his writing and the late leader Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death. More than $3 million in reward money has been offered for anyone who kills the author.
Rushdie’s book “The Satanic Verses” has been banned in Iran and Pakistan since 1988 and “many Muslims consider it to be blasphemous,” said the AP. According to i news, Hitoshi Igarashi, Rushdie’s Japanese translator, was stabbed to death in July 1991.
Rushdie has written a total of 13 novels as well as short stories and is the winner of numerous literary prizes.
UPDATE:
Key updates on the stabbing of Salman Rushdie, via The New York Times as of Friday evening, include:
· Andrew Wylie, Rushdie’s agent, said shortly before 7 p.m. on Friday, that the author was on a ventilator and could not speak. He also said “the news is not good,” that Rushdie will likely lose one eye, that the nerves in his arm were severed and his liver was stabbed and damaged.
· Rushdie was in surgery at around 5 p.m. Friday.
· The man who stabbed Rushdie has been identified as 24-year-old Hadi Matar of Fairview, N.J. Local police are working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to determine Matar’s motives and background.
· Police had blocked off an area around Matar’s address near Morningside Avenue and 7th Street Friday evening.
· Maj. Eugene J. Staniszewski of the New York State Police said Matar jumped onto the stage and attacked Rushdie in the neck and the abdomen. Matar had a pass to get on the grounds of the Chautauqua Institution, said institution president Michael Hill, and authorities so far believe he acted alone.
· A backpack apparently belonging Matar was checked by a bomb squad and found to be safe, according to Staniszewski. However, its contents will be investigated.
· Ralph Henry Reese was onstage with Rushdie and received an injury to his face during the attack. He was released from a hospital Friday afternoon. A Henry Reese is listed as the co-founder and president of the City of Asylum organization.
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