Long Live Salman Rushdie

 

Indian-origin novelist Salman Rushdie is in critical condition following Friday's attack in western New York. He has been airlifted in a critical condition after the assailant knelt on the neck after attacking him with punches before delivering a speech at a function.

Rushdie was kept in hiding for years due to death threats from Iran because of his writings. New York Governor Cathy Hochul said Rushdie is alive and is being treated with full care.

An eyewitness said a man approached Rushdie, 75, standing on the stage at the Chautauqua Institute and attacked him. At that time Rushdie was going to give a speech on artistic freedom to hundreds of audiences. Police said a New York State Police personnel present at the event took the attacker into custody. State police said the condition of Rushdie, who wrote the novel "The Satanic Verses," was not known and did not specify the motive for the attack and it was unclear what kind of weapon was used.

Rushdie's spokesman, Andrew Wylie, said in an email that Salman was having the surgery, but he had nothing more to say. Writer Rushdie fell to the floor in the attacker's attack, after which the people present there surrounded Rushdie to save him. The attacker was caught by a local police personnel and taken into custody.

Rushdie was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) to a Muslim Kashmiri family. Before moving to Britain, he had to face threats for writing his fourth novel, "The Satanic Verses". In which some Muslims said that it contains elements of blasphemy. Upon publication in 1988 the novel was banned in many countries with large Muslim populations. A year later, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious fatwa, calling on Muslims to kill the novelist and anyone involved in its publication for blasphemy.