Rushdie on ventilator and may lose an eye, agent saysSalman Rushdie is on a ventilator, unable to speak, and may lose an eye, his agent told Reuters and the New York Times.
“The news is not good,” Andrew Wylie, Rushdie’s agent, said Friday evening. “Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”
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In 1993, William Nygaard, the publisher of the Norwegian edition of The Satanic Verses, was severely wounded after being shot three times outside his home in Oslo. He said of the attack on Rushdie:
Rushdie has paid a high price. He is a leading author who has meant so much to literature, and he had found a good life in the United States.
In 1991, Hitoshi Igarashi, the scholar who translated Verses into Japanese was stabbed to death, his body found at the Tsukuba University campus, northeast of Tokyo.
In the same year, Ettore Capriolo, the translator of the Italian version, was attacked and stabbed in Milan, suffering knife wounds to his neck, chest, and hands.
Professor Carl LeVan was in the audience for Rushdie’s event at the Chautauqua Institution. He told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
I was sitting about 14 or 15 rows back from the stage, it’s a fairly large amphitheatre, here we call it the Amp. It seats a few thousand people and it’s a covered amphitheatre and I was just settling into my seat around 10.45am, a few minutes beforehand, we knew this was going to be a very popular event, he is a very well-known speaker, author, novelist and proponent of human rights.
One of the hosts for the event, one of the staff members of the Chautauqua Institution was describing the program and shortly after he started talking, a man rushed onto the stage and repeatedly and viciously stabbed Salman Rushdie. And there were just gaps of shock from the audience, we were all sitting down, many of us stood up. A few courageous and compassionate people went up the stage and it was just a really horrible act of intolerance and violence to witness.
Le Van said Rushdie’s attacker “was trying to stab him as many times as possible before he was subdued”, saying he believed the man “was trying to kill” the author.
It’s really difficult for those who of us who have been members of the Chautauqua community for some years because part of the mission of the Chautauqua movement when it started in the late 1800s in the United States was partly to embrace controversy as part of diversity. And so people come here with open minds and open hearts. They try to listen and learn and part of doing that is sometimes… arguing with each other.
So, to see that community pierced by someone who just had this level of intolerance and rage within himself does harm to Salman Rushdie, and we’re all very hoping for a speedy recovery for him, but it’s really just been devastating to the community.
British-Australian academic Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert spent 804 imprisoned by the Iranian regime on false charges of espionage. She is the author of a memoir of her incarceration, The Uncaged Sky.
More than 30 years and a $3million bounty later, Khomeini’s poisonous fatwa has finally caught up with Salman Rushdie. A black day for freedoms of speech, expression, religion & conscience. A tragic day for literature. We must pray Rushdie survives this.t.co/2dlg3iL5b9
— Kylie Moore-Gilbert (@KMooreGilbert) August 12, 2022 Three months ago I heard Salman Rushdie speak at the PEN World Voices Festival. He said: “A poem cannot stop a bullet. A novel can’t defuse a bomb … But we are not helpless … We can sing the truth & name the liars.” We must tell better stories than the tyrants.
— Jean Guerrero (@jeanguerre) August 12, 2022 PEN International has issued a statement on the attack on Sir Salman Rushdie.
Rushdie is a former president of PEN America.
PEN International is deeply shocked and appalled to learn that former PEN America President and renowned writer, Salman Rushdie, was attacked today just before giving a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. We utterly condemn the attack and wish him a prompt and full recovery.
Burhan Sonmez, PEN International’s President said:
PEN International utterly condemns the brutal attack on Salman Rushdie. Salman is an esteemed and celebrated author and beloved member of the PEN community, who has been facing threats for his work for years. No one should be targeted, let alone attacked, for peacefully expressing their views. We wish our dear friend a speedy recovery. Our thoughts are with him and his family.
More here.
For 33 years, Salman Rushdie has embodied freedom and the fight against obscurantism. He has just been the victim of a cowardly attack by the forces of hatred and barbarism. His fight is our fight; it is universal. Now more than ever, we stand by his side.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) August 12, 2022 Behrouz Boochani is an Iranian journalist and author in exile.
He is a former refugee who was held for six years in Australia’s illegal offshore detention regime in Papua New Guinea, writing of the experience in his award-winning book No Friend But the Mountains.
Through the Fatwa, the Iranian regime is responsible for the attack on Salman Rushdi. This attack is not only an assault on freedom of speech, but shows how dictators have expanded their reach around the world to challenge security pic.twitter.com/Fh9D94zmyO
— Behrouz Boochani (@BehrouzBoochani) August 12, 2022 Sarah Haque
Who is Salman Rushdie? Author whose book The Satanic Verses made him a targetRushdie is an Indian-born, British Booker prize-winning author. He has written 14 novels, but is best known for his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses. In 2007, Rushdie was knighted for his services to literature. He has been living in the US since 2000.
Why has his work led to death threats?The Satanic Verses – inspired in part by the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, garnered critical acclaim in the UK and won the Whitbread award for novel of the year in 1988
However, it also caused major controversy as some Muslims accused the text of blasphemy and of mocking Islam. It sparked a series of protests across the UK attended by thousands of British Muslims, many of which involved publicly burning the book.
A year later, Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini banned the book in Iran, and issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death.
Have there been previous attempts on Rushdie’s life?There have been a number of failed assassination attempts on Rushdie, as well as attacks on translators of the text.
Read more:
The moderator of the event where author Salman Rushdie was speaking on Friday morning, who was also injured in the attack, has issued a statement.
Ralph Henry Reese called Rushdie “one of the great defenders of freedom of speech and freedom of creative expression”, in a statement to the New York Times. Reese was released from the hospital Friday after receiving a facial injury.
“The fact that this attack could occur in the United States is indicative of the threats to writers from many governments and from many individuals and organizations.”
Rushdie on ventilator and may lose an eye, agent saysSalman Rushdie is on a ventilator, unable to speak, and may lose an eye, his agent told Reuters and the New York Times.
“The news is not good,” Andrew Wylie, Rushdie’s agent, said Friday evening. “Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”