Author Salman Rushdie attacked on speech phase inside New York
CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. (AP) — Salman Rushdie, the author whose novel "The Satanic Verses" drew demise threats from Iran's leader inside the 1980s, was attacked with every one other accompanied by apparently stabbed inside the nape Friday by a male who rushed the phase while he was concerning to present with a speech inside western New York.
A bloodied Rushdie, 75, was flown to a hospital. His condition was not straight away known. His agent, Andrew Wylie, said the author was undergoing surgery, nevertheless he had no indeed other details.
An Associated Press reporter witnessed a male challenge Rushdie on phase at the Chautauqua Institution with every one other accompanied by punch or stab him 10 to 15 times while he was actuality introduced. The author was pushed or fell to the floor, with every one other accompanied by the male was arrested.
Authorities did not straight away identify the attacker or provide some details on his motive.
State police said Rushdie was apparently stabbed inside the neck. Gov. Kathy Hochul said subsequent that he was living with every one other accompanied by "getting the protected from danger keeping he needs."
Dr. Martin Haskell, a physician who was among those who rushed to help, described Rushdie's wounds while "serious nevertheless recoverable."
Event moderator Henry Reese, a co-founder of an organization that offers residencies to writers facing persecution, was too attacked with every one other accompanied by suffered a slight head injury, police said. He with every one other accompanied by Rushdie were due to talk over the United States while a refuge for writers with every one other accompanied by other artists inside exile.
Police said a condition trooper was assigned to Rushdie's speech with every one other accompanied by made the arrest. But following the attack, some longtime visitors to the center questioned why there wasn't tighter safety for the event, specified the decades of threats opposed to Rushdie with every one other accompanied by a bounty on his head offering additional than $3 million for anyone who kills him.
Rabbi Charles Savenor was among the violently 2,500 people inside the audience. Amid gasps, spectators were ushered not here of the not shut air amphitheater.
The assailant ran onto the platform "and started pounding on Mr. Rushdie. At earliest you're like, 'What's going on?' And at that hour dated it became abundantly understandable inside a few seconds that he was actuality beaten," Savenor said. He said the assault lasted concerning 20 seconds.
Another spectator, Kathleen Jones, said the attacker was dressed inside black, accompanied by a black mask.
"We idea maybe it was small portion of a stunt to show that there's still a a large amount of disagreement around this author. But it became evident inside a few seconds" that it wasn't, she said.
Rushdie has been a prominent spokesperson for without charge utterance with every one other accompanied by tolerant causes. He is a former president of PEN America, which said it was "reeling from shock with every one other accompanied by horror" at the attack.
"We tin believe of no indeed comparable event of a condition brutal assault on a literary author on American soil," CEO Suzanne Nossel said inside a statement.
Rushdie's 1988 novel was viewed while blasphemous by numerous Muslims, who saw a personality while an offend to the Prophet Muhammad, among other objections. Across the Muslim world, often-violent protests erupted opposed to Rushdie, who was born inside India to a Muslim family.
At least 45 people were killed inside riots over the book, including 12 people inside Rushdie's hometown of Mumbai. In 1991, a Japanese translator of the book was stabbed to demise with every one other accompanied by an Italian translator survived a cutting tool attack. In 1993, the book's Norwegian publisher was report trio times with every one other accompanied by survived.
The book was banned inside Iran, where the late leader Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie's death. Khomeini died that same year.
Iran's contemporaneous Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has never issued a fatwa of his own withdrawing the edict, though Iran inside recent years hasn't focused on the writer.
Iran's task to the United Nations did not straight away respond to a appeal for remark on Friday's attack, which led a darkness report bulletin on Iranian condition television.
The demise threats with every one other accompanied by bounty led Rushdie to go into hiding under a British management defence program, which included a round-the-clock armed guard. Rushdie emerged following nine years of seclusion with every one other accompanied by cautiously resumed additional condition appearances, maintaining his outspoken censure of devout extremism overall.
He said inside a 2012 talk inside New York that terrorism is really the art of fear.
"The only way you tin defeat it is by deciding not to exist afraid," he said.
Anti-Rushdie sentiment has lingered lengthy following Khomeini's decree. The Index on Censorship, an organization promoting without charge expression, said money was raised to boost the reward for his killing while not long ago while 2016.
An Associated Press journalist who went to the Tehran office of the 15 Khordad Foundation, which place up the millions for the bounty on Rushdie, found it closed Friday darkness on the Iranian weekend. No one answered calls to its listed telephone number.
In 2012, Rushdie published a memoir, "Joseph Anton," concerning the fatwa. The title came from the pseudonym Rushdie had used while inside hiding.
Rushdie rose to prominence accompanied by his Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel "Midnight's Children," nevertheless his name became known around the world following "The Satanic Verses."
Widely regarded while one of Britain's finest living writers, Rushdie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II inside 2008 with every one other accompanied by earlier this year was made a subscriber of the Order of the Companions of Honor, a royal accolade for people who have made a greatest contribution to the arts, science or condition life.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that he was "appalled" that Rushdie was stabbed "while exercising a just we should never cease to defend."
The Chautauqua Institution, concerning 55 miles southwest of Buffalo inside a rural curve of New York, has served for additional than a century while a place for reflection with every one other accompanied by non-material guidance. Visitors don't go into and not here of metal detectors or undergo bag checks. Most people depart from the doors to their century-old cottages unlocked at night.
The Chautauqua center is known for its summertime speech series, where Rushdie has spoken before.
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Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz with every one other accompanied by Hillel Italie inside New York City; Carolyn Thompson inside Buffalo, New York; Michael Hill inside Albany, New York; with every one other accompanied by Nasser Karimi with every one other accompanied by Mehdi Fattahi inside Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
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