Author Salman Rushdie is treated after being attacked during a lecture, August 12, at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, about 120 km south of Buffalo. Joshua Goodman/The Associated Press
Salman Rushdie, who spent years in hiding and under police protection after his novel The Satanic Verses prompting Iranian officials to call for his assassination, was stabbed in the neck Friday on stage during an event in western New York.
The 75-year-old man was airlifted from Chautauqua Institution near Lake Erie to a trauma center, where he underwent surgery. Mr Rushdie was on a ventilator, his agent, Andrew Wylie, said. The attack drew swift condemnation from world leaders and Mr. Rushdie. New York State Police said at a news conference Friday that a 24-year-old suspect was in custody.
Mr. Wylie said in a statement that the perpetrator will likely lose an eye, and has severed nerves in his arm and a damaged liver. “The news is not good,” the statement said.
Police identified the suspect as Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, NJ. He had obtained a pass to enter the institution’s 750-acre grounds, according to Michael Hill, Chautauqua’s president. Police have not said anything about what the suspect’s motive might have been.
Mr. Rushdie was scheduled to give a lecture at 10:45 a.m. as part of the institution’s summer program. The topic was “More than Shelter: Redefining the American Home,” and Mr. Rushdie was to be interviewed by Henry Reese, the co-founder of a non-profit organization that offers residencies to writers facing persecution. The couple had just been introduced when, according to several attendees, a man dressed all in black came onto the stage in the outdoor amphitheater and rushed towards the author.
From her seat at stage right, Susan Toller said, it appeared the man was punching Mr Rushdie, before Mr Rushdie fell to the floor. For a few seconds, he said, the audience sat in stunned silence.
“We’re all shocked and wondering if this is some weird prank?” said Mrs. Toller, who attends the program annually with her family.
Shortly afterwards, a dozen people took to the stage and began to separate the two, with half the group holding the attacker and the other half tending to Mr Rushdie. A doctor in the crowd immediately began to administer first aid.
Video posted on social media of the aftermath of the attack showed a lone policeman on stage with a dog, raising questions about the lack of security for such a prominent and controversial figure.
A short video captures the scene in a conference room in West New York moments after author Salman Rushdie was stabbed. Rushdie was taken to hospital by helicopter for treatment. The man who confronted Rushdie on the Chautauqua Institution stage was arrested.
The Globe and Mail
“We were all wondering why there wasn’t security there … we saw Jesse Jackson speak here a few years ago, and there was very visible security around the amphitheater that day,” recalled Ms. Toller, and pointed out that this was not the case. Friday.
Paul Evans, who travels from California every year to attend the show, was also surprised by the lack of security, given the decades of threats against Mr. Rushdie.
“He just got on stage,” he said of the attacker. “There was no one with sunglasses on talking on their sleeves.”
Although technically a gated community, Mr. Evans described the site as a “soft spot”.
In addition to permanent members, visitors can attend with daily passes. “But there’s no metal detector or anything like that,” said Mr. Evans. “We’ve had presidents here and they bring their own security — police, helicopter, satellite phones and all that. And there’s never been a problem. But, you know, all it takes is one person who slips through the cracks.”
Anyone without a long-term pass was being turned away from campus Friday evening. Officials said at Friday’s news conference that a trooper and a New York state sheriff had been assigned to the event before the attack and had taken the suspect into custody.
Police said search warrants will be executed shortly.
Mr. Reese suffered some facial injuries in the attack and was treated and released.
Mr. A former president of PEN America, Rushdie has been a prominent spokesman for free speech.
“We are deeply shocked by this terrible and violent attack on Salman Rushdie,” said Grace Westcott, president of PEN Canada, a non-profit organization that promotes literature, fights censorship and helps free persecuted writers from prison. .
“He has lived under the threat of death for more than three decades and is still writing books and speaking in public. He has often said that while his case of being threatened by a government for what he had written was prominent and well-known, there hundreds of writers facing similar threats who are not well known. He knows he is not alone, he is simply known.”
The Satanic Verses it was seen as blasphemous by many Muslims, who saw the book as an insult to the Prophet Muhammad. In 1989, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the death of Mr Rushdie, who was later placed under police protection by the British government.
A Japanese translator of the book was stabbed to death in 1991. An Italian translator survived a knife attack. In 1993, the book’s Norwegian editor was shot three times and survived.
In 1992, Mr. Rushdie made his first public appearance after the fatwa, at a PEN Canada benefit in his honor at the Winter Garden Theater in Toronto. It was an unannounced appearance, with heavy security. “When he appeared on stage there was an audible gasp,” Ms Westcott said.
Mr. Rushdie resumed scheduled public appearances in 1995. In 2017, he appeared in a Curb your enthusiasm episode that mocked the fatwa against him. “Oh, I have to live my life,” he told the New York Times last year.
The mission of the Chautauqua program is to “build bridges across difference,” said Mr. Hill at Friday evening’s press conference.
“I think the worst thing Chautauqua could do is walk away from that mission … and I don’t think Mr. Rushdie wanted that either.”
Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, a leading member of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 riots, plans to speak at the amphitheater on Monday.
With reports from Reuters and the Associated Press
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