and Salman Rushdie described his life as ‘relatively normal’ in a German magazine just weeks before he was stabbed New York state.
He made the comment during an interview with Stern magazine after years of going into hiding due to death threats.
Sir Salman spoke about the threats he sees to… U.S democracy. He also called himself an optimist, noting that the fatwa, a religious edict issued in Iran in 1989 that called for muslims around the world to kill him for blasphemy was pronounced long ago.
The interview was supposed to appear in the magazine on August 18, but Stern released it on Saturday, a day after Rushdie’s attack.
The interview was conducted about two weeks ago, the magazine’s editors said.
The leader of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued the fatwa after Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses” was condemned as blasphemous. He went into hiding for almost ten years, but has been living relatively openly in recent years.
Indian-born Sir Salman, who became a US citizen in 2016 and lives in New York City, said he was concerned about threats to democracy in the United States.
These were driven by racism and hatred of liberalism’s achievements, and constituted “a preparatory phase of fascism,” he said.
“(Former US President Donald) Trump’s victory over the truth is most important there. His people believe they are being lied to by the others, not by him,” he said.
Trump falsely claims that the November 2020 presidential election he lost to Joe Biden was stolen through widespread vote fraud.
When asked if he was nostalgic, Rushdie, 75, replied: “Not necessarily. I like history, but when it comes to my own life, I prefer to look ahead.”
An accused of the attempted murder of Sir Salman has… a plea of not guilty in court.
Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, has been held in custody without bail.