CHAUTOQUA, N.Y. (AP) — Salman Rushdie, whose novel “The Satanic Verses” drew death threats from Iran’s leader in the 1980s, was stabbed in the neck and abdomen Friday by a man who rushed the stage, while the author was about to give a lecture in western New York.
A bloodied Rushdie, 75, was airlifted to hospital and underwent surgery. His agent, Andrew Wylie, said the writer was on a ventilator on Friday night, with a damaged liver, severed nerves in his arm and an eye he was likely to lose.
Police identified the attacker as Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey. He was awaiting arraignment after his arrest at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education and rehabilitation center where Rushdie was scheduled to speak.
Matar was born in the United States to Lebanese parents who immigrated from Yaroun, a border village in southern Lebanon, Mayor Ali Tehfe told The Associated Press. It was born a decade after The Satanic Verses was first published.
The motive for the attack is unclear, said State Police Maj. Eugene Staniszewski.
Rushdie’s 1988 novel was seen as blasphemous by many Muslims, who saw the character as an insult to the Prophet Muhammad, among other objections. The book was banned in Iran, where the late Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death.
Iran’s theocratic government and its state media have given no justification for Friday’s attack. In Tehran, some Iranians interviewed Saturday by the AP praised the attack on an author they say has tarnished the Islamic faith, while others worry it will further isolate their country.
An AP reporter witnessed the attacker confront Rushdie on stage and stab or punch him 10 to 15 times as the author was introduced. Dr. Martin Haskell, a doctor who was among those who rushed to help, described Rushdie’s wounds as “serious but recoverable.”
Event moderator Henry Rees, 73, co-founder of an organization that offers residencies to writers facing persecution, was also attacked. Reese suffered a facial injury and was treated and released from a hospital, police said. He and Rushdie planned to discuss the United States as a haven for writers and other artists in exile.
A state trooper and a county sheriff’s deputy were assigned to Rushdie’s lecture, and state police said the trooper made the arrest. But after the attack, some longtime visitors to the center questioned why there wasn’t tighter security for the event, given the decades of threats against Rushdie and the bounty on his head that offered more than $3 million to anyone who killed him.
Matar, like other visitors, was given a pass to enter the Chautauqua Institution’s 750-acre grounds, said Michael Hill, the institution’s president.
The suspect’s attorney, Public Defender Nathaniel Barone, said he was still gathering information and declined to comment. Matar’s home was cordoned off by authorities.
Rabbi Charles Savener was among about 2,500 people in the audience for Rushdie’s appearance.
The attacker ran onto the platform “and started punching Mr Rushdie. You’re like, ‘What’s going on?’ According to him, the attack lasted about 20 seconds.
Another onlooker, Kathleen James, said the attacker was dressed in black, wearing a black mask.
“We decided that maybe this was part of a ploy to show that there is still a lot of controversy surrounding this author. But after a few seconds it was clear it wasn’t, she said.
Amidst sighs, the spectators were ushered out of the outer amphitheater.
The stabbing reverberated from the quiet town of Chautauqua to the United Nations, which issued a statement expressing the dismay of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and stressing that free expression and opinion should not be met with violence.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday’s attack, which was featured on Iranian state television’s evening news bulletin.
From the White House, national security adviser Jake Sullivan called the attack “reprehensible” and said the Biden administration wished Rushdie a speedy recovery.
“This act of violence is appalling,” Sullivan said in a statement. “We are grateful to the good citizens and first responders for helping Mr. Rushdie so quickly after the attack and to law enforcement for their swift and effective work that continues.”
Rushdie was a prominent spokesman for free speech and liberal causes, and the literary world recoiled from what Ian McEwan, a writer and friend of Rushdie’s, described as “an assault on freedom of thought and speech”.
“Salman is an inspiring advocate for persecuted writers and journalists around the world,” McEwan said in a statement. “He is a fiery and generous spirit, a man of immense talent and courage, and will not be deterred.”
PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel said the organization is not aware of any such act of violence against a literary writer in the US. Rushdie once served as president of the group, which advocates for writers and free expression.
After the publication of The Satanic Verses, often violent protests erupted in the Muslim world against Rushdie, who was born in India to a Muslim family.
At least 45 people were killed in riots over the book, including 12 in Rushdie’s hometown of Mumbai. In 1991, a Japanese translator of the book was stabbed to death, and an Italian translator survived a knife attack. In 1993, the book’s Norwegian publisher was shot three times and survived.
Khomeini died the same year he issued the fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death. Iran’s current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has never issued his own fatwa to revoke the edict, although Iran has not focused on the author in recent years.
The death threats and the reward prompted Rushdie to go into hiding under a British government protection program that included a 24-hour armed guard. Rushdie has emerged after nine years in seclusion and has cautiously resumed more public appearances, maintaining his outspoken criticism of religious extremism in general.
In 2012, Rushdie published a memoir, Joseph Anton, about the fatwa. The title comes from the pseudonym Rushdie used while in hiding. He said during a conversation in New York the same year the memoir came out that terrorism is really the art of fear.
“The only way to defeat it is to decide not to be afraid,” he said.
Anti-Rushdie sentiment lingered long after Khomeini’s decree. The Censorship Index, an organization that promotes free expression, said money was raised to increase the reward for his murder as early as 2016.
An AP journalist who went to the Tehran office of the 15 Khordad Foundation, which pledged the millions for the Rushdie prize, found it closed Friday night during the Iranian weekend. No one answered calls to the listed phone number.
Rushdie rose to fame with his novel Midnight’s Children, which won the Booker Prize in 1981, but his name became world famous after The Satanic Verses.
Widely regarded as one of Britain’s greatest living writers, Rushdie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2008 and earlier this year made a Companion of the Order, a royal recognition for people who have made a major contribution to art, science or public life.
Organizers of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which opens Saturday in Scotland and is one of the world’s biggest literary events, are encouraging visiting authors to read a sentence from Rushdie’s work at the start of their events.
“We are inspired by his courage and are thinking of him at this difficult time,” said festival director Nick Barley. “This tragedy is a painful reminder of the fragility of what we hold dear and a call to action: We will not be intimidated by those who would use violence instead of words.”
The Chautauqua Institution, about 55 miles (89 kilometers) southwest of Buffalo in a rural corner of New York, has served for more than a century as a place of reflection and spiritual guidance. Visitors do not pass through metal detectors or undergo bag checks. Most people leave the doors of their century-old houses unlocked at night.
The center is known for its summer lecture series, where Rushdie has spoken before.
At an evening vigil, several hundred residents and visitors gathered for prayer, music and a long moment of silence.
“Hate can’t win,” shouted one man.
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Associated Press reporters John Wowrow in Chautauqua; Jennifer Peltz, Hillel Italy and Edith Lederer in New York; Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York; Michael Hill in Albany, New York; Ted Shaffrey in Fairview, New Jersey; Nasser Karimi and Mehdi Fatahi in Tehran, Iran; Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut; and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
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