The author of ‘The Satanic Verses’, considered blasphemous in some Muslim countries, was stabbed in the neck and abdomen in a public act in the US
Salman Rushdieone of the most important and influential writers in the world, has been stabbed in the neck. The attack occurred as Rushdie was about to participate in an event at the Chautauqua Institution, a New York state cultural organization located about a seven-hour drive from the city, where Rushdie lives.
The state of health of Rushdie, who turned 75 in July, is serious. His agent, Andrew Wylie, has commented that the news is not good, since he is connected to a respirator. “It is likely that Salman lose an eye; the nerves in her arm are severed and her liver badly damaged“, as reported by ‘The New York Times’ Juliana Barbassa.
The writer was evacuated by helicopter, while the assailant, a dark-skinned young man wearing a T-shirt, was arrested on the spot. Some media announced that it is Hadi Matar, 24, New Jersey resident. The person who was going to interview Salman Rushdie also suffered minor head injuries in the attack.
The existence of stab wounds had been advanced to ‘The New York Times’ by the endocrinologist Rita Landman, one of the people who urgently treated Rushdie at the scene. According to her testimony, He had several wounds, one on his neck, he was lying in a pool of blood and seemed to be alive because other people would perceive that he had a pulse.
According to witnesses cited by the American press, Rushdie was stabbed “repeatedly, intensely” at 11 am, when the event was about to begin. Stacey Losse, present in the auditorium, has specified an AP who was stabbed “six to eight times.” Another witness, Valerie Haskell, has told the same agency that up to twenty people immediately went up on stage and managed to contain the aggressor. At the same time, some doctors who were in the audience attendedn the writer until the arrival of the emergency services.
“A state police officer stood up and saved his life, protected him and the moderator”, said Kathy Hochul, Governor of New York. The conversation in which Rushdie was to participate was part of the Chautauqua Institution’s series of lectures, which each summer organizes a series of meetings with some of the most important people in the world in the fields of culture, art, science and culture. the policy
Author of ‘The Satanic Verses’
Whoever murders Rushdie is entitled to a reward of three million dollars (2.9 million euros) offered by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1989 and increased in 2016. The button on the writer’s head is a consequence of the death sentence issued against him for “blasphemy” by the then maximum leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini.
The reason, the work the satanic verses. One of the novel’s translators was murdered by Muslim fanatics, and most of the publishers that published the book hid his name from the cover for fear of terrorist attacks.
Rushdie thus became a fugitive from international Islamism for several years, in which they experimented under the protection of the British secret services (who were repeatedly driven insane by their propensity to flirt). Five years ago, the writer declared to EL MUNDO that “the Nobel will never cross my path… from what we all know” , referring to Iran’s death sentence. The highest leader of that country, Ayatollah Al Khamenei, has reiterated that the sentence against Rushdie is still in force.
Since the publication of the satanic verses Salman Rushdie has been forced to live in hiding or protected by bodyguards. Paradox of paradoxes, who was going to interview him is Henry Reese, the founder of City of Asylum in Pittsburgh, an organization that shelters persecuted artists and intellectuals around the world.
Although the motivations of the alleged aggressor are not known, it is impossible not to think of Tehran’s death sentence, which made Rushdie a a symbol of freedom of expression and thought of liberal democracies.
If the religious nature of the action is confirmed, it could have political and strategic consequences given that the US and Iran are currently negotiating a nuclear treaty for the Islamic Republic to renounce the manufacture of atomic bombs for several decades. A similar agreement was already reached in 2015, but Donald Trump tore it up two and a half years later, which achieved Iran will re-enter the atomic race.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism