After publishing The Satanic Verses, author Salman Rushdie received years of death threats from Islamists. Recently, he was attacked on stage in New York.
The attacker had come from the audience wearing a black mask, according to Mark Sommer, a reporter for Buffalo News, who spoke to the media.
In a video that was uploaded online, spectators can be seen flocking to the stage right after the event.
Indian-born Mr. Rushdie’s 1981 novel Midnight’s Children, which went on to sell over a million copies in the UK alone, launched him to prominence.
However, his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, published in 1988, pushed him into hiding for nine years.
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The surrealist, post-modern book was outlawed in several nations . It also caused controversy among some Muslims who thought its content was disrespectful.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini demanded Mr. Rushdie’s execution a year after the publication of the book. In a fatwa, a court order issued by an Islamic religious leader, he promised a $3 million (£2.5 million) prize.
Although Iran’s government has distanced itself from Khomeini’s proclamation, the bounty on Mr. Rushdie’s head is still ongoing. In 2012, a semi-official Iranian religious group increased the amount by $500,000 more.
Born to non-practicing Muslims and an atheist, the British-American citizen has been an outspoken supporter of free speech, defending his work on numerous occasions.
In response to Mr. Rushdie’s knighting by Queen Elizabeth II in 2007, there were demonstrations in Pakistan and Iran. A cabinet minister in Pakistan claimed the honour “justifies suicide strikes.”
Mr. Rushdie has previously faced threats and boycotts for attending literary events.
His appearance at the Chautauqua Institution event in western New York served as the opening lecture. It was for the nonprofit organization’s summer lecture series.
An artist at the location claimed that rehearsals had been proceeding normally up until the attack inside the amphitheatre this morning. Since then, she added, the area has been under lockdown.
The news of the incident left PEN America, a well-known US free speech organisation for writers, “reeling with shock and despair.” From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Rushdie served as the organization’s president.
In a statement, it claimed, “We can think of no comparable example of a public violent attack on a literary writer on American territory.”
Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, committed to “help in the inquiry however needed.”
Following this terrible incident, “our thoughts are with Salman and his loved ones,” she added.
PROPER ANALYSIS OF Salman Rushdie SCENARIO
Salman Rushdie had received murder threats for more than 30 years. Since The Satanic Verses was published, yet we do not yet know the attacker’s motive. Although Mr. Rushdie said that the main focus of his book was to study the immigrant experience. But some Muslims took offence at how the Prophet Muhammad was portrayed and at how the Quran’s status as the word of God was questioned.
India, the author’s birthplace, was the first nation to outlaw The Satanic Verses. Further followed by a number of others before Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued his infamous fatwa.
Salman Rushdie apologised to Muslims after being taken aback by how extensive the protests were, but he spent the majority of the following ten years in hiding.
While the author had thus far avoided physical harm, others connected to the book had not; in the early 1990s, the Norwegian publisher had been shot and critically injured, and the Japanese translator had been stabbed to death.
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