The demonstration outside the New York City Library – called “Stand with Salman” – was organized, among others, by American Pen. Participants included Paul Auster, Siri Hustvedt, Gay Talese and Kiran Desai. The famous participants gave speeches and read, among other things, aloud from Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses”, just as they did in 1989 when Iran’s spiritual leadership issued a fatwa against Rushdie.
— I have thought of you every hour of every day for the past week, said Paul Auster in his speech in which he addressed the attacked author.
It was on Friday last week that a 24-year-old man ran onto the stage and attacked 75-year-old Salman Rushdie with a knife. Rushdie was injured, among other things, in the liver and an eye, and he is still being treated in hospital.