Eps 4: Blasphemy and infringement: Why Salman Rushdie was stabbed

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Byron Dunn

Byron Dunn

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Salman Rushdie, whose novel The Satanic Verses attracted death threats from Iranian leaders in the 1980s, was stabbed in the neck and stomach on Friday by a man who had charged onto a stage while the author was preparing to deliver a Western New York University lecture. The man was running onto the stage while the author was about to deliver a Western New York University lecture. Acclaimed British-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie had just arrived onstage at a Chautauqua Institution event in upstate New York when an assailant rushed him and stabbed him several times in the neck and stomach. Salman Rushdie, an author whose work led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was stabbed on Friday just before a speech that Salman Rushdie was scheduled to deliver in Western New York, authorities said. The background of writer Salman Rushdie has taken centre stage following a stabbing. A fatwa was issued against Salman Rushdie in 1989 for his book The Satanic Verses.
Celebrated writer Salman Rushdies best-known novel, The Satanic Verses, was banned in Iran as profane, with the countrys government issuing a religious fatwa calling for Rushdies death. Rushdies controversial book The Satanic Verses has been banned in Iran since 1988, because many Muslims believe The Satanic Verses is blasphemous, and a fatwa calling for Rushdies death, which is still standing, has been issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini from the late 1980s. A year later, the late Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or an edict, calling for Rushdies death. Irans current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has never issued an fatwa, and the current Iranian supreme leader has himself reversed that edict, although Iran has been less focused on Rushdie over the past few years.
Then-Ayatollah Khomeini, in his later years, issued that fatwa, saying that believing Muslims were morally bound to execute that death sentence, in order to exact revenge for a profane claim made by renowned British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie in that book. Then, the Iranian governments argument was, Khomeini was dead, it was not longer the state policy, and the regime was trying to slowly distance itself from that phrase.
With stabs, the fatwa speculations, and the Iranian governments, came back. Police believe that the attacker had acted alone, yet Iranian state media is still listing the celebrated British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie as a apostate insulting the prophet in their official report on the stabbing. An AP journalist witnessed Mazlar stand up against Rushdie onstage, stabbed Rushdie 10 to 15 times, or punched him, while Rushdie was being introduced.
ET, the AP said its reporters witnessed the man storming onto the stage and beginning to hit or stab the 75-year-old Rushdie, then the assailant was restrained. Authorities said multiple members of Chautauqua Institutions staff, along with members of the audience, charged at the man with the knife on stage and forced him to the floor. New York State Police said Friday that an off-duty police officer near the stage took the knife-wielding man immediately into custody, assisted by a Chautauqua County sheriffs office deputy.
Chautauqua Institute President said a state trooper and a sheriffs deputy were requested by and were present at the event. Rushdie was taken to a local hospital via helicopter, according to the police release, which also said the man interviewed Rushdie at Chautauqua Institution, Western New York, suffered a mild head injury. After he was stabbed, some longtime visitors to the Chautauqua institution wondered why security was not more rigorous at this event, given decades of threats against Salman Rushdie and the bounty on his head, offering over $3 million to whoever killed him.
PEN America executive director Susannah Nossel said the organization is unaware of any comparable acts of violence against a literary author in the U.S. Rushdie was once the chairman of the organization, which advocates for writers and freedom of expression. PEN America executive director Suzanne Nossel said the literary freedom-of-expression organisation was reeling with shock and horror over a stabbing report of his.
In Tehran, some Iranians interviewed Saturday by The Associated Press welcomed the assault on Rushdie, while others worried that the attacks will further isolate them. Acclaimed British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie emerged from obscurity in the late 1990s, Islamic fundamentalists and hardline religious groups have harbored vendettas against the author, and the Iranian government said in 2007 the governments fatwa on Iran could not be overturned . The life of writer Salman Rushdie was first threatened in 1989, when Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa on him for the book The Satanic Verses, inspired by the life of Prophet Mohammed.
After The Satanic Verses was published, widespread, often violent, protests erupted throughout the Muslim world against Rushdie. Rushdie was considered sacrilegious by many Muslims, who saw the characters insults of the prophet Mohammed, among other objections. Author Salman Rushdie has managed to avoid repercussions for almost 40 years.