NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW YORK, AUG 12
Salman Rushdie, the British author, was on Friday attacked on stage during an event in New York, according to media reports. The author’s controversial writings made him the target of a fatwa that forced him to go underground.
Video footage on several social media platforms showed people rushing to Salman Rushdie’s aid after he was stabbed at the event in Chautauqua County.
https://twitter.com/ShivAroor/status/1558114276040011778?s=20&t=QoMGmV1zMH42z27cPfcy8A
Several authors and artists condemned the event and hoped that Salman Rushdie recovers quickly.
Salman Rushdie first rose to prominence with his novel “Midnight Children”, which won the Booker Prize in 1981. But his name became known around the world after “The Satanic Verses”. The book has been banned in Iran since 1988, as many Muslims consider it to be blasphemous.
Salman Rushdie was taken to the hospital by medical helicopter.
Author Salman Rushdie was stabbed after taking stage at a Chautauqua Institute event.This man has been detained by police.-#NYPD#SalmanRushdie #Newyork pic.twitter.com/M2xt3nicbh
— Chaudhary Parvez (@ChaudharyParvez) August 12, 2022
Presently living in New York, he is an advocate of freedom of speech, notably launching a strong defence of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo after its staff were gunned down by Islamists in Paris in 2015.
Threats and boycotts continue against literary events that Rushdie attends, and his knighthood in 2007 sparked protests in Iran and Pakistan, where a government minister said the honour justified suicide bombings.
