Author Salman Rushdie attacked at New York event

[Satanica]

[....]

According to police, Rushdie suffered an apparent stab wound to the neck and was transported by helicopter to an area hospital. His condition was not immediately known.

Rushdie was scheduled to speak at the Chautauqua Institution as part of a lecture series on writers exiled under threat of persecution.

According to an Associated Press reporter who was at the event, Rushdie was attacked by a man who hopped on stage while he was being introduced.

The man began “stabbing or punching” Rushdie, who fell to the floor. The man was then restrained and taken into custody by police.

Photos and video from the scene show staffers tending to Rushdie, who was later helped off stage.

Henry Reese, the founder of a literary non-profit who was appearing onstage alongside Rushdie, suffered "a minor head injury," police said.

The 75-year-old Indian-born novelist has been the target of death threats and assassination attempts since the 1988 publication of “The Satanic Verses,” a book that some Muslims consider offensive because of its depiction of Islam.

The book was banned in Iran. The following year, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death.

A bounty of over $3 million was offered, and Rushdie went into hiding for nearly a decade.

In 2012, Rushdie published a memoir about the fatwa entitled “Joseph Anton” — the pseudonym he used while in hiding.

Author Salman Rushdie attacked at New York event

The 75-year-old was attacked on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York on Friday morning.

www.yahoo.com

 

[Sugar Cookie]

 

[Sejanus]

Nothing ever happens at the Chautauqua Institute. That is supposed to be part of its charm

 

[Blunderbuss Firozabad]

He should expect the universe to balance out his good luck landing Padma Lakshmi for a few years.

 

[Satanica]

MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — “The Satanic Verses” author Salman Rushdie was taken off a ventilator and able to talk Saturday, a day after he was stabbed as he prepared to give a lecture in upstate New York.

Rushdie remained hospitalized with serious injuries, but fellow author Aatish Taseer tweeted in the evening that he was “off the ventilator and talking (and joking).” Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, confirmed that information without offering further details.

Earlier in the day, the man accused of attacking him Friday at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education and retreat center, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges in what a prosecutor called a “preplanned” crime.

An attorney for Hadi Matar entered the plea on his behalf during an arraignment in western New York. The suspect appeared in court wearing a black and white jumpsuit and a white face mask, with his hands cuffed in front of him.

A judge ordered him held without bail after District Attorney Jason Schmidt told her Matar, 24, took steps to purposely put himself in position to harm Rushdie, getting an advance pass to the event where the author was speaking and arriving a day early bearing a fake ID.
[....]

Agent: Rushdie off ventilator and talking, day after attack

Author Salman Rushdie has been taken off a ventilator and is able to talk, a day after being stabbed as he prepared to give a lecture.

apnews.com

 

[Sugar Cookie]

The crazed fanatic who tried to stab Salman Rushdie to death on a New York lecture stage was sentenced Friday to the maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

Hadi Matar, 26, was found guilty of attempted murder and assault in February over the horror attack that saw him trying to carry out a decades-old fatwa by ambushing the 77-year-old novelist as he was giving a lecture at the Chautauqua Institute in August 2022.

Before sentencing, the knifeman — who repeatedly shouted pro-Palestinian slogans during his trial — stood and made a statement about freedom of speech in which he called Rushdie a hypocrite.

Matar received the maximum 25-year sentence for the attempted murder of Rushdie and seven years for wounding a man who was on stage with him. The sentences must run concurrently because both victims were injured in the same event, District Attorney Jason Schmidt said.

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Salman Rushdie’s attacker Hadi Matar gets max sentence for horrific stabbing

Hadi Matar, 26, had been found guilty of attempted murder and assault in February over the horror attack that saw him ambush the 77-year-old novelist as he was giving a lecture at the Chautauqua In…

nypost.com