Author Salman Rushdie stabbed in the neck while on stage
Author Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the neck while on stage at a literary event in western New York.
The renowned British Indian novelist was on stage preparing to deliver a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution when a man stormed the stage and stabbed him.
Another person who was due to interview Mr Rushdie was also attacked.
Mr Rushdie fell to the floor and the attacker was detained by police, witnesses said.
He received treatment on stage and he was later taken by stretcher to a medical evacuation helicopter.
New York state police said Mr Rushdie “suffered an apparent stab wound to the neck, and was transported by helicopter to an area hospital. His condition is not yet known.”
The interviewer suffered a minor head injury, police added, and a State Trooper assigned to the event immediately took the suspect into custody.
Mr Rushdie was forced to go into hiding and faced death threats for most of his adult life following the publication of his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims decried as blasphemous.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then the Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a fatwa against the author, calling on Muslims to kill him, as well as his editors and publishers.
The novel is centered around two Indian Muslim protagonists living in England and satirises religion and the concepts of good and evil. The novel, which is heavy in Mr Rushdie’s magical realist style, recounts several episodes from Prophet Muhammad’s life.
Responding to news that his book had been banned in India, Mr Rushdie said “the book isn’t actually about Islam, but about migration, metamorphosis, divided selves, love, death, London and Bombay.”
