Salman Rushdie Attacked Onstage At Event In Western New York
Huff PostIn this file photo, Salman Rushdie attends the 68th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner on Nov. 15, 2017, in New York. via Associated Press Salman Rushdie was attacked in western New York as he took the stage at the Chautauqua Institution for a lecture on the importance of freedom of creative expression. An Associated Press reporter who was on scene in Chautauqua, New York, says a man stormed the stage as Rushdie was being introduced, then began “punching or stabbing” the author. “Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.” The leader of PEN America, the free speech group Rushdie used to lead, recoiled in “shock and horror” at the “brutal, premeditated attack.” “We can think of no comparable incident of a public violent attack on a literary writer on American soil,” CEO Suzanne Nossel said in a statement. We hope and believe fervently that his essential voice cannot and will not be silenced.” Nossel declined to speculate on the origins or motives for the attack, instead laying blame on “all those around the world who have met words with violence or called for the same.” Rushdie has long been targeted by the Iranian regime in response to his 1988 book “The Satanic Verses.” Iran’s leader at the time, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, deemed the book blasphemous and issued a fatwa, calling for Rushdie’s execution and offering a multimillion-dollar bounty.