Writer Salman Rushdie was attacked whereas giving a lecture in western New York on Friday.
Grant Pollard/Invision/AP
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Grant Pollard/Invision/AP
Writer Salman Rushdie was attacked whereas giving a lecture in western New York on Friday.
Grant Pollard/Invision/AP
CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. — Salman Rushdie, the creator whose writing led to dying threats from Iran within the Nineteen Eighties, was attacked Friday as he was about to provide a lecture in western New York.
An Related Press reporter witnessed a person storm the stage on the Chautauqua Establishment and start punching or stabbing Rushdie as he was being launched. The 75-year-old creator was pushed or fell to the ground, and the person was restrained.
Rushdie was rapidly surrounded by a small group of people that held up his legs, presumably to ship extra blood to his chest.
His situation was not instantly recognized.
A whole bunch of individuals within the viewers gasped on the sight of the assault and have been then evacuated.
Rushdie’s guide “The Satanic Verses” has been banned in Iran since 1988, as many Muslims think about it to be blasphemous. A 12 months later, Iran’s late chief Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s dying.
A bounty of over $3 million has additionally been provided for anybody who kills Rushdie.
Iran’s authorities has lengthy since distanced itself from Khomeini’s decree, however anti-Rushdie sentiment has lingered. In 2012, a semi-official Iranian non secular basis raised the bounty for Rushdie from $2.8 million to $3.3 million.
Rushdie dismissed that menace on the time, saying there was “no proof” of individuals being within the reward.
That 12 months, Rushdie printed a memoir, “Joseph Anton,” concerning 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 turned recognized world wide after “The Satanic Verses.”
The Chautauqua Establishment, about 55 miles southwest of Buffalo in a rural nook of New York, is thought for its summertime lecture collection. Rushdie has spoken there earlier than.