Salman Rushdie is stabbed on stage in New York state, 33 years after he was threatened with death by Iran for writing Satanic Verses
- Witnesses allege Salman Rushdie, 75, was helped off stage before his attacker was apprehended
- Blood spatter can be seen on the podium and the chair near where the author intended to deliver his speech
- He was attending the CHQ 2022 event in Chautauqua, near Buffalo, when he was attacked
Author Salman Rushdie was injured after being punched and stabbed onstage prior to a speech he was due to give in Chautauqua, near Buffalo.
The 75-year-old writer was attacked as he was introduced onstage for the CHQ 2022 event before giving a talk on Friday morning.
He attended a discussion about the United States as a refuge for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creative expression.
Witnesses claimed he managed to walk off the stage with help and the attacker is reportedly in custody.
There seemed to be blood spattering on the wall behind where Rushdie had been attacked, and some of them could also be seen on a chair. His current condition is unknown.
The author was knighted in Britain in 2007 ‘for his services to literature’ by his friend Tony Blair.
Rushdie has previously received death threats for his writing, with his book the Satanic Verses allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad and the Quran.
He wrote the Satanic Verses, which resulted in a culture war igniting in Britain in 1988 – with protests taking place in the UK, along with book burnings.
Pakistan banned the book and in February 1989 he received a fatwa – a death sentence – from the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini.
Rushdie has previously received death threats for his writing, with his book the Satanic Verses sparking protests in 1988
People rushed to help the author after the attack, with the motive currently unknown
Rushdie was attached prior to his talk in Chautauqua, near Buffalo
Who is Salman Rushdie and what is he known for?
Sir Salman Rushdie is a Booker Prize-winning author and novelist.
The 75-year-old was born in India and his writing is often based on the themes of connections and migrations between Western and Eastern civilizations.
In 1981 he won the Booker Prize for his second novel, Midnight’s Children. His writing has resulted in 30 book-length studies, and over 700 articles on his writing.
Rushdie’s writings have been widely acclaimed in the genres of magical realism and historical fiction.
He has lived in the US since 2000 and was named a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University in 2015.
He has been nominated five times for the Booker Prize, including for Midnight’s Children, in 1983 for Shame, in 1988 for The Satanic Versus, in 1995 for The Moor’s Last Sign and in 2019 for Quixote.
Rushdie, 75, is an Indian-born acclaimed author and novelist
Khomeini called for the deaths of Rushdie and his publishers, and also called on Muslims to point out those who could kill him if they couldn’t themselves.
The fatwa, or “spiritual opinion,” followed a spate of book burnings in Britain and riots across the Muslim world that left 60 people dead and hundreds injured.
Rushdie was under 24-hour security at British taxpayers’ expense when a $3 million bounty was put on his head.
He had to go into hiding under police protection for ten years and previously reported that every year he received a “Valentine’s Day card” from Iran to let him know that the country has not forgotten its vow to kill him.
In 2012, a semi-official Iranian religious foundation increased Rushdie’s bounty from $2.8 million to $3.3 million.
Hitoshi Igarashi, who translated The Satanic Verses into Japanese for Rushdie, was stabbed to death on campus where he was teaching literature.
Ettore Capriolo, the Italian translator of the book, was stabbed in his apartment in Milan.
The Norwegian publisher of the novel, William Nygaard, was shot three times outside his home and left for dead in October 1993, but survived the attack.
In Turkey, the book’s translator, Aziz Nesin, was the target of a hotel arson attack that left 37 dead.
Rushdie previously wrote a 655-page fatwa memoir, which was nominated for the UK’s premier non-fiction award, the Samuel Johnson Prize.
During the fatwa, he lived in permanent fear and at one point believed that his ex-wife Clarissa Luard and their son Zafar, who was nine at the time, had been murdered or kidnapped by hitmen.
In 1998, Iran’s pro-reform president relaxed the fatwa and said he had no intention of tracking down and killing Rushdie.
Technically it still stands, but is unlikely to be maintained.
He has two children from his four marriages – his other son is named Milan – but has been associated with many other women, including Indian model Riya Sen.
There seemed to be blood spattering on the wall behind where Rushdie had been attacked, some on chairs too