Author Salman Rushdie stabbed in New York state – airlifted to hospital, attacker arrested

Author Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the neck during a lecture today, Friday, in the United States.

The 75-year-old Rushdie had just taken the stage to be introduced before giving a speech, when an unknown man came on stage and stabbed the author.

Rushdie survived the stabbing and was airlifted to hospital, said New York state governor Kathy Hochul at the press conference.

There is no more detailed information about the severity of Rushdie’s injuries.

The attacker was arrested on the spot, says the New York State Police.

The stabbing took place at the Chautauqua Institution in the western part of New York state, less than a hundred kilometers southwest of the city of Buffalo. Rushdie was participating in the institute’s annual summer lecture series.

An eyewitness who spoke to the news agency AP Charles Savenor said the attack lasted a total of about 20 seconds. Another eyewitness, Kathleen Jonessaid the attacker was dressed in black and wearing a black mask.

Rushdie is a British Indian-born writer. He is especially known for his fourth novel The Satanic Verses, which was published in 1988.

In Iran, the book was banned as blasphemy and Iran’s supreme leader at the time, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeinigave Rushdie a religious death sentence, a fatwa.

Khomeini used a fatwa to call on Muslims to kill Rushdie, but in 1998 the Iranian Foreign Ministry assured Britain that the fatwa would not be carried out.

Since then, Iran has considered that a fatwa can only be revoked by the one who issued it. Khomenei died in 1989 a few months after Rushdie’s fatwa was issued.

Khomeini’s successor, the current supreme leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Ali Khameneireported in 2005 that the fatwa given to Rushdie was still in effect.

However, Rushdie has been able to live an open life in recent years. He has lived since 2000 in Manhattan, New York City.