Salman Rushdie, author of several magical realism and historical fiction novels, was violently attacked on stage while he was about to begin a lecture.
Rushdie was on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, when an assailant rushed the stage and attacked him with punches and stabs. There were 10-15 blows, at least one of which got the 75-year-old author in the neck.
The Associated Press reported that the attacker was arrested, and Rushdie was flown to a hospital for surgery. Dr. Martin Haskell, who was one of the physicians on the scene described the wounds as “serious but recoverable.”
Some of Rushdie’s best-known works are Midnight’s Children, Quichotte, and The Satanic Verses. Some Muslims consider The Satanic Verses to be blasphemous, including Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran, who issued an edict to seek Rushdie’s assassination in 1989.
“Frankly, I wish I had written a more critical book,” when asked by BBC Radio about the threat. He added, “I’m very sad that it should have happened. It’s not true that this book is a blasphemy against Islam. I doubt very much that Khomeini or anyone else in Iran has read the book or more than selected extracts out of context.”
Salman Rushdie is originally from Mumbai (then Bombay), India, and was educated largely in England, where he would eventually move on a permanent basis for many years. He later relocated to the United States. He holds citizenship in both the United States and the United Kingdom.