Salman Rushdie Alive

Who’s Salman Rushdie and why was he stabbed on stage?

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist.^[2] His work often combines magical realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and western civilizations, set on the Indian subcontinent.

Rushdie’s second novel, midnight’s children (1981), won the Booker prize in 1981 and was deemed to be “the best novel of all winners” on two occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize. His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), was the subject of controversy, provoking protests from Muslims. Death threats were made against him, including a fatwa calling for his assassination issued by Ruhollah khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran, in 1989.

Its fanciful and satiric use of Islam struck many Muslims as blasphemous, and Muslims enjoined to kill not only Rushdie but also his editors and publishers. Violent demonstrations followed in Pakistan; copies of the novel were burned in Britain, where several bookstores were bombed; and the work was banned in several countries.

The British government put Rushdie under police protection. In 2010, Anwar al-Alwalaki published an Al-Qaeda hit list in inspire magazine, including Rushdie along with other figures claimed to have insulted Islam.

Rushdie was attacked yesterday as he was about to give a lecture in western New York, and apparently was stabbed in the neck by his attacker after he rushed on to the stage.

The author was taken to a hospital in a helicopter, and his condition has been confirmed to be stable.

Rushdie is 75 years old, and as he was being introduced to the audience in the Chautauqua Institution, a man confronted him on stage and began punching and/or stabbing him on multiple occasions as he fell to the floor.

The attacker was arrested by the authorities on scene. Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, said: “Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.” Wylie said Rushdie is currently on a ventilator and unable to speak. The suspect was identified as 24-year-old Hadi Matar of Fairview, New Jersey.

What is the conflict of The Satanic Verses?

The issue was said to have divided “Muslims from Westerners along the fault line of culture,” and to have pitted a core Western value of freedom of expression—that no one “should be killed, or face a serious threat of being killed, for what they say or write”—against the view of many Muslims that no one should be free …

The attack on Rushdie has lead many to ask if Islam understands or embraces the concept of human right.