Salman Rushdie, a well-known Indian-born author, was rushed to the hospital after being assaulted on stage at a New York event.
A man allegedly stormed the stage and stabbed Rushdie as he was being introduced to give a speech on artistic freedom at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York state.
According to eyewitness evidence and a police statement, the author suffered a neck wound as a result of a stabbing.
Iran has subsequently distanced itself from Khomeini’s decree, but hate for Rushdie has endured for decades, as Islamists have continued to undertake lethal assassination attempts to silence voices they consider to have committed the “unpardonable sin” of blaspheming against Islam. From Charlie Hebdo journalists to French schoolteacher Samuel Paty to Hindu Samaj leader Kamlesh Tiwari, and more recently Kanhaiya Lal and Umesh Kolhe, victims of the mentality that attacked Rushdie over his book in the 1980s and advocated for his assassination have been named.
According to police, the culprit was captured and taken into jail by an on-site state trooper.
While authorities supplied no information about the suspect’s identity or motivation, the attack on Rushdie is thought to have been carried out by an Islamic extremist.
Rushdie, who comes from a Muslim background, was chastised for his fourth novel, “The Satanic Verses.” He allegedly got death threats because of parts that some Muslims consider insulting.
When it was first published in 1988, the book was banned in numerous countries with substantial Muslim populations.
A year later, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or religious decree, ordering Muslims to kill the author for blasphemy.
There is no information available on his condition. New York Governor Kathy Hochul, on the other hand, acknowledged that he was alive.
Taking to Twitter she hailed Rushdie as “an individual who has spent decades speaking truth to power,” and said, “We condemn all violence, and we want people to be able to feel (the) freedom to speak and to write the truth.”
There has been an outpouring of prayers for the injured author since the news of the attack came.
