The Satanic Verses author, Salman Rushdie attacked when about to give a lecture in New York
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On Friday, Novelist Salman Rushdie was attacked as he was about to give a lecture in western New York.
At the Chautauqua Institution, a man came to the stage and began punching or stabbing Rushdie as he was being introduced. He was taken or fallen to the floor, and the man was restrained, TOI reports.
Rushdie is an Indian-born novelist, whose work, combining magical realism with historical fiction, is primarily concerned with the connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, with many sets on the Indian subcontinent.
His controversial book, the Satanic Verses has been banned in Iran since 1988 as many Muslims considered it to be blasphemous. A year later, Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa that calls for Rushdie’s death.
The country also offered $3 million in reward for Rushdie’s assassination.
Rushdie’s prior books had also stoked controversy. Rushdie saw his role as a writer “as including the function of antagonist to the state”.
His second book Midnight’s Children infuriated India’s former prime minister, Indira Gandhi because it appeared to suggest that she was responsible for the death of her husband through neglect.
