Author Salman Rushdie on fan may lose eye after attack, agent says

Salman Rushdie, whose novel satanic verses The Iranian leader, who received death threats in the 1980s, was stabbed in the neck and stomach on Friday by a man who took the stage as the author was about to give a lecture in western New York.

Bleeding, Rushdie, 75, was taken to hospital and underwent surgery. His agent, Andrew Wylie, said the writer was on a ventilator Friday night with a damaged liver, nerves in his arm and an eye he was likely to lose.

Police identified the shooter as Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey. He was arrested at the scene and is awaiting trial. Matari was born ten years later satanic verses was published. The motive for the attack is unclear, said State Police Major Eugene Stanisevsky.

An Associated Press reporter saw the assailant confront Rushdie on stage at the Chautauqua Institution and stab him 10 to 15 times as he was introduced. The perpetrator was pushed or fell to the ground and the man was arrested.

Dr. Martin Haskell, a doctor who was among those who rushed to help, described Rushdie’s injuries as “serious but treatable”.

The event’s moderator, Henry Reese, 73, co-founder of an organization that provides residencies for writers facing persecution, was also attacked. Reese suffered injuries to her face and was treated and released from the hospital, police said. He and Rushdie would see the United States as a haven for writers and other artists in exile.

A state trooper and a county sheriff’s representative were dispatched to Rushdie’s conference, and state troopers said the officer made the arrest. But after the attack, some visitors to the center questioned why security was not tighter at the event, given Rushdie’s decades of threats and the bounty on his head that offered more than $3 million to anyone who killed him.

Rabbi Charles Savenor was among about 2,500 people in the audience. Amid sighs, the audience was led out of the open-air amphitheater.

The attacker runs to the platform and hits Mr. Rushdie. At first you’re like, “What’s going on?” And then within seconds it was clear he was being hit,” Savenor said. According to him, the attack lasted about 20 seconds.

Another passerby, Kathleen Jones, said the attacker was dressed in black with a black mask.

“We thought it was part of a stunt to show that there is still a lot of controversy surrounding this author. But within seconds it became clear that was not the case, he said.

Matar, like other visitors, was given a pass to enter the facility’s 750-acre site, the organization’s president said.

The suspect’s attorney, public defender Nataniel Barone, said he was still gathering information and declined to comment.

Rushdie was one of the leading exponents of free speech and liberal causes. He is the former president of PEN America, who said he was “suffering in shock and horror” from the attack.

“We cannot think of another incident of public violence against a literary writer on American soil like this one,” executive director Susan Nossell said in a statement.

Rushdie’s 1988 novel was considered blasphemous by many Muslims, who, among other objections, saw the character as an insult to the Prophet Muhammad. In the Muslim world, violent protests have frequently erupted against Rushdie, who was born into a Muslim family in India.

At least 45 people were killed in riots over the book, including 12 in Rushdie’s hometown of Mumbai. In 1991, the book’s Japanese translator was stabbed to death, while the Italian translator escaped with a knife. In 1993, a Norwegian book publisher was shot three times and survived.

The book was banned in Iran, where the late leader Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, in 1989 calling for Rushdie’s death. Khomeini died in the same year.

Iran’s current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has never issued a fatwa to repeal the decree, although Iran has not targeted the writer in recent years.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday’s attack, which led to a nightly news bulletin on Iranian state television.

Death threats and favors forced Rushdie into hiding under the British government’s protection program, which included a 24-hour armed guard. Rushdie emerged from nine years of seclusion and cautiously returned to public speaking, an open critique of religious extremism in general.

In a 2012 speech in New York, he said that terrorism is really the art of fear.

“The only way to beat him is to decide not to be afraid,” he said.

Anti-Rushdi sentiment continued long after Khomeini’s decree. Index on Censorship, an organization that advocates for free speech, said the money was raised to push for a reward for his 2016 murder.

An Associated Press reporter who went to the Tehran office of the 15 Khordad Foundation, which donated millions to the Rushdie Prize, found it closed Friday night over the Iranian weekend. No one answered calls to the phone number you provided.

In 2012, Rushdie published a memoir about fatwa Joseph Antony. The title comes from the alias Rushdie used while in hiding.

Rushdie rose to fame with his 1981 Booker Prize-winning novel midnight childrenBut his name became famous all over the world after “The Satanic Verses”.

Widely regarded as one of Britain’s greatest living writers, Rushdie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2008 and earlier this year received a Companion of the Order of Honor, a royal award for people who have made a significant contribution to Art. Science or public life.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that he was “shocked” that Rushdie was shot “in the exercise of a right we must never fail to defend”.

The Chautauqua Institute, about 55 miles southwest of Buffalo in a corner of rural New York, has served as a place of reflection and spiritual guidance for more than a century. Guests do not go through metal detectors or baggage checks. Most people leave the doors of century-old houses open at night.

The center is known for its summer conference series, where Rushdie has spoken before.

“We were founded to bring people together” to learn and find solutions to important problems, said Michael Hill, president of the institute. “Now we are called to embrace fear and all the worst human traits: hate.”