Salman Rushdie believes his life is “very normal again” and that fears of an attack are a thing of the past, he told an interviewer just two weeks before he was stabbed on stage in New York on Friday.
The novelist, who remained in hospital on Saturday, was stabbed several times, including in the neck and abdomen. His agent Andrew Wylie said his liver was damaged and he was likely to lose his eye.
His alleged attacker, Hadi Matar, 24, was charged with attempted murder and assault.
Rushdie, 75, was speaking at a literary festival at the Chautauqua Institute in western New York state about the importance of America giving asylum to writers in exile when he was attacked.
Matar, who had bought a ticket, allegedly rushed the stage and stabbed Rushdie before being attacked by audience members, staff at the institution and two local law enforcement officers providing security.
Rushdie has been under a fatwa calling for his death since 1989, when the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued it in response to the Indian-origin author’s controversial novel The Satanic Verses. Since then, the Iranian regime has tried to distance itself from the fatwa, but the price on Rushdie’s head has been raised in recent years to more than $3 million.
Many Muslims viewed Rushdie’s book as blasphemous because—among other things—it included a character they interpreted as insulting the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of their faith.
The Satanic Verses was published a decade before Matar was born to parents who emigrated from Lebanon. But his social media activity reportedly suggests an admiration for Iran and an attraction to Shia extremism.
Just two weeks ago, Rushdie spoke to the German news magazine Stern about his safety. The author said his life would have been in much more danger if social media had been around when he wrote The Satanic Verses: “More dangerous, infinitely more dangerous.”
“The fatwa is a serious matter. Fortunately, we didn’t have the internet back then. The Iranians had faxed the fatwa to the mosques. All this is a long time ago. Today, my life is completely normal again.” Asked what he feared now, Rushdie said: “In the past I would have said religious fanaticism. I don’t say it anymore. The greatest danger we face right now is losing our democracy. After the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, I am seriously concerned that the US is not going to get on with it. That the problems are irreparable and the state will collapse. The greatest danger we face today is the kind of crypto-fascism we see in America and elsewhere.
“Oh, we live in scary times. This is true, although I always tell people: do not be afraid. But the bad thing is that death threats have become more normal. It’s not just politicians who get them, even American teachers who remove certain books from the curriculum.
“Look at how many guns there are in America. The existence of all these weapons is scary in itself. I think many people today live with similar threats to the ones I had back then. And the faxes they used against me are more like a bicycle than a Ferrari compared to the Internet.”
Police and FBI search the suspect’s home after Rushdie was stabbed. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
He said he was happy to have his books reviewed in the art pages rather than the political sections of newspapers.
Stern asked him what his advice was to people who fear where the world is going: “I believe something very good is happening in the younger generation: they are much more inclined to activism. We are seeing the aging of a generation that we urgently need right now, struggling. We need people who can organize and people who are ready to fight. Fighters. For a society worth living in. Instead of hoping that things will turn out for the best. As an author, I also notice that young authors are becoming role models again – instead of the way it used to be, namely the dead.”
Questions were asked yesterday about how Matar gained access to the event. Paul Susko, an attorney based in Erie — the Pennsylvania city where Rushdie is now on a ventilator at UPMC Hamot Hospital — said attendees were barred from bringing food and drink into the hall, but that was about it.
“There was a projection to prevent attendees from bringing in a cup of coffee,” Susko said. He added that “perhaps checking for weapons” with a wand or metal detectors “would be more helpful.”
Susko, who came to the event with his son, was in the front row on the side of the stage where Matar rushed to the author. “There was no security to prevent us from getting to the stage,” Susko said. “No security was visible around the stage during the attack.”
Several people in the audience said Matar was dressed in black and wearing a mask. “We thought maybe it was part of a ploy to show that there’s still a lot of controversy surrounding this author,” said witness Kathleen Jones. “But after a few seconds it became clear that it wasn’t.”
Chautauqua Institution began life as a summer camp for Sunday school teachers and grew into a major center of cultural exchange and dialogue. Hours after the attack, the institution’s president, Michael Hill, said the site had never seen anything like it in its nearly 150 years of existence.
He said: “We were founded to bring people together in community, to learn and thereby create solutions, develop empathy and take on intractable problems. Today we are called to embrace fear and the worst of all human traits: hate.
Hill confirmed that Matar had a ticket to the event “the same way any other patron would have.” He emphasized that the institution is open to everyone, as part of its mission of inclusion.
Asked whether there should have been increased security with metal detectors in place given the sensitivity surrounding Rushdie, he said: “We are proud of the security we have in place.”
Prior to Friday’s call, discussions were held between state and local police and the facility, and two police officers — a state trooper and a local deputy — were assigned. Eugene Staniszewski of the New York State Police said at a press conference that law enforcement spoke with the institution at the beginning of the season.
“There were some significant events, they requested a law enforcement presence and fortunately they were,” he said. New York State Governor Kathy Hochul praised the trooper for his actions. “It was a state police officer who stood up and saved his life, protected him and the moderator who was attacked,” she said.
Rushdie had no security of his own. When asked if organizers should have made an effort to filter attendees entering the premises, Hill strongly disagreed.
“Our mission is to build bridges across differences,” he said. “Mr Rushdie is known as one of the foremost defenders of free speech. One of the worst things Chautauqua could do is back away from its mission.
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