CHAUTAUQUA, NY – Salman Rushdie spent years in hiding after Iran’s leadership called for his death following the publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses.” But in recent years, declaring “Oh, I’ve got to live my life,” she re-entered society, regularly appearing in public around New York City with no apparent security.
On Friday morning, any sense that threats to his life were a thing of the past were dashed when an attacker stormed the stage at the Chautauqua Institution here in western New York, where Mr. Rushdie planned to give a talk about America as a safe haven for exiled writers. The assailant stabbed Mr. Rushdie, 75, in the abdomen and neck, police and witnesses said, struggling to continue the attack even as several people restrained him.
Mr Rushdie was airlifted to a nearby hospital, where he underwent surgery for several hours on Friday afternoon. The agent of Mr. Rushdie, Andrew Wylie, said on Friday evening that Mr. Rushdie was on a ventilator and unable to speak.
“The news is not good,” said Mr. Wylie in an email. “Salman will probably lose an eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”
Maj. Eugene J. Staniszewski of the New York State Police identified the suspect in the attack as Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old New Jersey man who was arrested at the scene, but said in a press conference Friday afternoon that there was no indication yet of a motive.
He said police were working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the local sheriff’s office and that investigators were in the process of obtaining search warrants for a backpack and electronic devices found at the institution.
The attack shocked spectators, who had gathered in the 4,000-seat amphitheater of the Chautauqua Institution, a summer destination for literary and artistic programming.
“It took like five men to get him away and he was still stabbing,” said Linda Abrams, who attended the conference in the front row. “I was just furious, furious. Like intensely loud and fast.”
Others described blood running down Mr. Rushdie and piles up on the floor. An attending doctor, Rita Landman, said Mr Rushdie appeared to have multiple stab wounds, including one to the right side of his neck, but people around him were saying: “he’s got pulse, he’s got pulse”.
Ralph Henry Reese, 73, who was on stage with Mr Rushdie to moderate the discussion, suffered a facial injury during the attack and was released from hospital on Friday afternoon, said the police.
Mr. Rushdie was treated moments after the attack. Credit… Joshua Goodman/Associated Press
The shameless attack on Mr. Rushdie shook the literary world. Suzanne Nossel, the executive director of PEN America, which promotes free speech, said in a statement that “we cannot think of any comparable incident of a public attack on a literary writer on American soil.”
After being released from the hospital, Mr. Reese said in a statement that Mr. Rushdie was “one of the great authors of our time and one of the great advocates of free speech and creative expression”.
“We revere him and our main concern is his life,” said Mr. Reese. “The fact that this attack could happen in the United States is indicative of the threats against writers from many governments and from many individuals and organizations.”
Mr. Rushdie had effectively been living under a death sentence since 1989, about six months after the publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses,” which recounted parts of the life of the Prophet Muhammad with depictions that many Muslims found offensive and some considered blasphemous. .
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s supreme leader after the 1979 Iranian revolution, issued a religious edict known as a fatwa on February 14, 1989, ordering Muslims to kill Mr. Rushdie. A multi-million dollar price was placed on his head. Mr Rushdie, who was living in London at the time, went into hiding and moved into a fortified safe house under British police protection for most of the next 10 years.
Friday morning around 10:47 am, Mr. Rushdie had just sat on stage with the moderator of the discussion, Mr. Reese, the co-founder of a Pittsburgh nonprofit, City of Asylum, a residency program for exiled writers, when a man rushed the stage and attacked Mr. Rushdie, police said and several witnesses. The audience was stunned and jumped to their feet.
Mary Newsom, who attended the conference, said some people at first thought it might be a stunt. “Then it became clear that it was clearly not a stunt,” he said.
Several witnesses said the attacker was able to easily reach Mr. Rushdie, running onto the stage and approaching him from behind. Chuck Koch, an Ohio attorney who has a home in Chautauqua, was sitting in the second row and ran to the stage to help subdue the attacker. Mr. Koch said several people worked to separate the assailant from Mr. Rushdie, and were able to do so before a uniformed officer arrived and handcuffed the assailant.
As the attacker was being restrained, another bystander, Bruce Johnson, saw a knife fall to the floor, he said.
Michael Hill, president of Chautauqua, said at the Friday afternoon news conference that Mr. Matar had a pass to enter the grounds of the institution like any typical patron.
Michael Hill, center, president of the Chautauqua Institution, prepares to speak at a news conference about Friday’s attack. Credit… Brendan Bannon for The New York Times
The attack was denounced by literary personalities and public officials. Markus Dohle, the chief executive of Penguin Random House, the publisher of Mr. Rushdie, said in a statement: “We are deeply shocked and dismayed to hear of the attack.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a post on Twitter that he was “horrified that Sir Salman Rushdie has been stabbed while exercising a right we should never stop defending”.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Twitter: “Today’s attack on Salman Rushdie was also an attack on some of our most sacred values: the free expression of thought.”
Even before the fatwa, “The Satanic Verses” was banned in several countries, including Bangladesh, Sudan, Sri Lanka and India, where Mr. Rushdie. It was exclusive to the country for over a decade.
After the fatwa, Iran rejected a half-hearted apology from Mr. Rushdie, which he later regretted.
Many died in protests against its publication, including 12 people in a riot in Mumbai in February 1989 and six more in another riot in Islamabad. Books were burned and bookstores were attacked. People connected to the book were also attacked.
In July 1991, Hitoshi Igarashi, the novel’s Japanese translator, was stabbed to death and his Italian translator, Ettore Capriolo, was seriously injured. In October 1993, William Nygaard, the Norwegian publisher of the novel, was shot three times outside his home in Oslo and was seriously injured.
The fatwa was maintained by the Iranian government after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini for nearly a decade, until 1998, when Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who considered himself relatively liberal, said that Iran no longer gave support for murder. But the fatwa remains in place, reportedly with a reward from an Iranian religious foundation of about $3.3 million as of 2012.
In an interview with The Sunday Times in 1995, shortly before the first scheduled public appearance of Mr. Rushdie from the fatwa, a panel in London where he discussed his new novel, “The Moor’s Last Sigh”, the author spoke about his return to writing after the conflagration over “The Satanic Verses”.
“Writing this was a very important step for me,” he said in that interview. “I had spent two and a half years talking to politicians, which is not my favorite profession. Then I realized it was silly to let this nasty business get in the way of what I love to do the most. I wanted to prove to myself that I could absorb what happened to me and transcend it. And now, at least, I feel like I do.”
Since then, Mr. Rushdie has published eight novels and a 2012 memoir, “Joseph Anton,” about the fatwa. The title comes from the pseudonym he used while in hiding, taken from the first names of Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekhov.
Mr. Rushdie signing autographs outside an event at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2012. Credit… Casey Kelbaugh for The New York Times
In recent years, Mr. Rushdie has enjoyed a more public life in New York City. In 2019, he spoke at a private club in Manhattan to promote his novel, “Quixotte.” Security at the event was relaxed and Mr. Rushdie mingled with the guests freely and then dined with the club members.
Iran has yet to officially comment on the attack against the perpetrator.
But government supporters took to social media to praise the stabbing of Mr. Rushdie, as the Ayatollah’s fatwa finally materialized. Some wished him dead. Some warned that a similar fate awaits other enemies of the Islamic Republic.
A quote from Ayatollah Khamenei dating back several years was widely shared, in which he says the fatwa against Mr Rushdie was “fired like a bullet that will not rest until it hits its target”.
Ayad Akhtar, writer and president of PEN America, who is a friend of Mr. Rushdie and considers “The Satanic Verses” a “pivotal moment” in modern literary history, said he never saw Mr. Rushdie wearing no security detail. , whether in a theatre, for dinner or at a public event. Mr Rushdie seemed perfectly at ease in the world, he said.
Jay Root reported from Chautauqua, NY, David Gelles from Putnam Valley, NY, Elizabeth A. Harris and Julia Jacobs from New York City. Additional reporting was provided by Steven Erlanger, Farnaz Fassihi, Jonah E. Bromwich, and Edmund Lee.