Author Salman Rushdie stabbed on lecture stage in New York, police confirm

CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. — Salman Rushdie, whose novel “The Satanic Verses” drew demise threats from Iran’s chief within the Eighties, was stabbed within the neck and stomach Friday by a person who rushed the stage as he was about to present a lecture in western New York.

A bloodied Rushdie, 75, was flown to a hospital. His situation was not instantly recognized. His agent, Andrew Wylie, mentioned the author was present process surgical procedure, however he had no different particulars.

Police recognized the attacker as Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey. He was arrested on the scene and was awaiting arraignment. State police Main Eugene J. Staniszewski mentioned the motive for the stabbing was unclear.

An Related Press reporter witnessed the attacker confront Rushdie on stage on the Chautauqua Establishment and punch or stab him 10 to fifteen instances as he was being launched. The writer was pushed or fell to the ground, and the person was arrested.

Dr. Martin Haskell, a doctor who was amongst those that rushed to assist, described Rushdie’s wounds as “severe however recoverable.”

Occasion moderator Henry Reese, 73, a co-founder of a company that provides residencies to writers dealing with persecution, was additionally attacked. Reese suffered a facial harm and was handled and launched from a hospital, police mentioned. He and Rushdie have been because of talk about the USA as a refuge for writers and different artists in exile.

A state trooper and a county sheriff’s deputy have been assigned to Rushdie’s lecture, and state police mentioned the trooper made the arrest. However after the assault, some longtime guests to the middle questioned why there wasn’t tighter safety for the occasion, given the many years of threats towards Rushdie and a bounty on his head providing greater than $3 million for anybody who kills him.

Rabbi Charles Savenor was among the many roughly 2,500 folks within the viewers. Amid gasps, spectators have been ushered out of the outside amphitheater.

The assailant ran onto the platform “and began pounding on Mr. Rushdie. At first you are like, ‘What is going on on?’ After which it grew to become abundantly clear in a couple of seconds that he was being crushed,” Savenor mentioned. He mentioned the assault lasted about 20 seconds.

One other spectator, Kathleen Jones, mentioned the attacker was wearing black, with a black masks.

“We thought maybe it was a part of a stunt to indicate that there is nonetheless a variety of controversy round this writer. However it grew to become evident in a couple of seconds” that it wasn’t, she mentioned.

The suspect’s lawyer, public defender Nathaniel Barone, mentioned he was nonetheless gathering info and declined to remark.

Rushdie has been a distinguished spokesman totally free expression and liberal causes. He’s a former president of PEN America, which mentioned it was “reeling from shock and horror” on the assault.

“We are able to consider no comparable incident of a public violent assault on a literary author on American soil,” CEO Suzanne Nossel mentioned in a press release.

Rushdie’s 1988 novel was seen as blasphemous by many Muslims, who noticed a personality as an insult to the Prophet Muhammad, amongst different objections. Throughout the Muslim world, often-violent protests erupted towards Rushdie, who was born in India to a Muslim household.

A minimum of 45 folks have been killed in riots over the e-book, together with 12 folks in Rushdie’s hometown of Mumbai. In 1991, a Japanese translator of the e-book was stabbed to demise and an Italian translator survived a knife assault. In 1993, the e-book’s Norwegian writer was shot thrice and survived.

The e-book was banned in Iran, the place the late chief Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s demise. Khomeini died that very same yr.

Iran’s present Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has by no means issued a fatwa of his personal withdrawing the edict, although Iran in recent times hasn’t targeted on the author.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Friday’s assault, which led an evening information bulletin on Iranian state tv.

The demise threats and bounty led Rushdie to enter hiding below a British authorities safety program, which included a round the clock armed guard. Rushdie emerged after 9 years of seclusion and cautiously resumed extra public appearances, sustaining his outspoken criticism of non secular extremism total.

He mentioned in a 2012 speak in New York that terrorism is de facto the artwork of worry.

“The one approach you’ll be able to defeat it’s by deciding to not be afraid,” he mentioned.

Anti-Rushdie sentiment has lingered lengthy after Khomeini’s decree. The Index on Censorship, a company selling free expression, mentioned cash was raised to spice up the reward for his killing as just lately as 2016.

An Related Press journalist who went to the Tehran workplace of the 15 Khordad Basis, which put up the hundreds of thousands for the bounty on Rushdie, discovered it closed Friday night time on the Iranian weekend. Nobody answered calls to its listed phone quantity.

In 2012, Rushdie revealed a memoir, “Joseph Anton,” in regards to the fatwa. The title got here from the pseudonym Rushdie had used whereas in hiding.

Rushdie rose to prominence along with his Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel “Midnight’s Youngsters,” however his identify grew to become recognized world wide after “The Satanic Verses.”

Extensively thought to be certainly one of Britain’s best residing writers, Rushdie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2008 and earlier this yr was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honor, a royal accolade for individuals who have made a serious contribution to the humanities, science or public life.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that he was “appalled” that Rushdie was stabbed “whereas exercising a proper we must always by no means stop to defend.”

The Chautauqua Establishment, about 55 miles southwest of Buffalo in a rural nook of New York, has served for greater than a century as a spot for reflection and religious steering. Guests do not move by metallic detectors or bear bag checks. Most individuals go away the doorways to their century-old cottages unlocked at night time.

The Chautauqua middle is understood for its summertime lecture collection, the place Rushdie has spoken earlier than.