The Satanic Verses

2022 - 8 - 12

Satanic Verses

Post cover — Image courtesy of "Deadline"

'The Satanic Verses' Author Salman Rushdie Attacked And Stabbed ... (Deadline)

'The Satanic Verses' author Salman Rushdie has been attacked while on stage in New York State, according to the Associated Press.

Rushdie also appeared as himself in the likes of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Bridget Jones’s Diary. His other works include 1975’s Grimus, 1983’s hame and 1999’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet. An endocrinologist, who was in the audience and offered assistance, told the New York Times Rushdie had multiple stab wounds and there was a pool of blood under his body. Images on AP show him surrounded by others who rushed onstage immediately after he was attacked. Rushdie has both British and American citizenship and the lecture was supposed to be the first in a seven-part series hosted by the non-profit organization. At about 11:10 a.m. ET, the Associated Press said its reporter witnessed a man storm the stage at the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York and begin punching or stabbing 75-year-old Rushdie before the man was restrained. The attacker is in police custody and Rushdie was flown by helicopter to a local hospital, according to the statement, which also said the person interviewing Rushdie suffered a minor head injury.

'Satanic Verses' author Salman Rushdie attacked on stage, suffers ... (USA TODAY)

A USA TODAY employee witnessed a man storm the stage in a "bizarre" attack on Salman Rushdie, who suffered an "apparent stab wound to the neck."

In it, Rushdie puts his spin on the Miguel de Cervantes classic with a modern-day Don Quixote satirizing former President Donald Trump’s America. The book was long-listed for the Booker Prize. His book "The Satanic Verses" has been banned in Iran since the late 1980s, and many Muslims consider it blasphemous. Seward said that he did not hear the man shout anything and that Rushdie tried to get away from the attacker and fell. "PEN America is reeling from shock and horror at word of a brutal, premeditated attack on our former President and stalwart ally, Salman Rushdie," Nossel said. He witnessed a man "bound" toward the stage from the audience with his "arms out swinging." New York police said a state trooper assigned to the event took a suspect into custody after the attack.

A tsunami of outrage: Salman Rushdie and The Satanic Verses (The Guardian)

The writer had no idea his novel would unleash such anger and become a litmus test of freedom of expression.

“The Satanic Verses is as important in my body of work as any of my other books,” he said. Abbas Salehi, the deputy minister of culture and Islamic guidance at the time, said: “Imam Khomeini’s fatwa is a religious decree and it will never lose its power or fade out.” In February 1989, Rushdie expressed remorse, saying: ‘‘I profoundly regret the distress that publication has occasioned to sincere followers of Islam.” The words had little impact, however. One Muslim-majority country after another banned the book, and in December thousands of Muslims demonstrated in Bolton, Greater Manchester, and burned a pile of the books. By October 1988, he already needed a bodyguard in the face of a deluge of death threats, cancelling trips and hunkering down. The Indian-born author had come from a career as an advertising copywriter, confecting slogans such as “naughty but nice” for cream cakes, for example.

Salman Rushdie attacked: Explaining the controversy around ... (INSIDER)

Published in 1988, Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" was decried by some as blasphemous for its portrayal of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

On January 14, 1989, protestors in the UK city of Bradford burned a copy of "The Satanic Verses." I profoundly regret the distress the publication has occasioned to the sincere followers of Islam." In 2012, an Iranian religious foundation raised the bounty for Rushdie's head to $3.3 million. Published in 1988, "The Satanic Verses" follows two Indian Muslim actors who magically survive a plane hijacking. These verses permitted prayer to three pre-Islamic Meccan goddesses, which is a stark violation of Islamic monotheism. The Satanic Verses were withdrawn on the grounds that the devil had sent them to trick Muhammad into thinking they came from God, and devout Muslims deny that these verses ever existed.

What to Know About Salman Rushdie's 'Satanic Verses' Controversy (PEOPLE.com)

Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed while giving a speech in New York August 12, had a fatwa calling for his execution issued against him after his fifth book, ...

The marriage of writers Salman Rushdie and Marianne Wiggins was reported to be shaky even before the Ayatollah Khomeini sentenced Rushdie to death for his alleged blasphemies in The Satanic Verses, and the enforced togetherness of six months in hiding could hardly have been expected to salvage it. The couple's lives turned to nightmare soon after Verses was published in Britain in September 1988. They were married in January 1988 and, though there were rumors of professional jealousies on both sides, they were apparently content long enough to dedicate books to each other during the past year. The Bombay-born novelist, 42, well knew the fire and rigor of Islam when he wrote The Satanic Verses; he was raised an upper-middle-class Muslim before being sent off to England in his teens. His marriage to writer Marianne Wiggins has now shattered under the strain. Rushdie had to go into hiding in the immediate aftermath, and lived under the death threat until 1998, when the Iranian government said it would no longer enforce the fatwa (though it remained active).

People defiantly buying up copies of 'The Satanic Verses' after ... (The indy100 (satire))

British-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie - once the subject of a fatwa for his writing - has been stabbed in the neck while on stage at a literary event in ...

A third wrote: "Stabbed 10-15 times for writing words! His condition is not yet known." \n\nThis man has been detained by police.-#NYPD\n#SalmanRushdie #Newyork\u201d

The Satanic Verses