Salman Rushdie, long a target of death threats, attacked in NY

Salman Rushdie, whose writing has drawn anger in parts of the Islamic world and whose life has been subject to an Iranian bounty for 33 years, was attacked as he prepared to give a lecture at an event in western New York on Friday. 

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Salman Rushdie, the author whose writing led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was attacked and apparently stabbed Friday by a man who rushed the stage as he was about to give a lecture in western New York.

Mr. Rushdie was flown to a hospital. His condition was not immediately known.

An Associated Press reporter witnessed a man confront Mr. Rushdie on stage at the Chautauqua Institution and punch or stab him repeatedly as he was being introduced. The author was pushed or fell to the floor, and the man was arrested.

Authorities did not immediately identify the attacker or offer any information on his motive.

State police said Mr. Rushdie was apparently stabbed in the neck. Gov. Kathy Hochul said later that he was alive and “getting the care he needs.”

The moderator at the event was also attacked and suffered a minor head injury, police said.

Police said a state trooper was assigned to Mr. Rushdie’s lecture and made the arrest. But after the attack, some longtime visitors to the center questioned why there wasn’t tighter security for the event, given the decades of threats against Mr. Rushdie and a bounty on his head in the Muslim world offering more than $3 million for anyone who kills him.

Rabbi Charles Savenor was among the roughly 2,500 people in the audience. Amid gasps, spectators were ushered out of the outdoor amphitheater.

The assailant ran onto the platform “and started pounding on Mr. Rushdie. At first you’re like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then it became abundantly clear in a few seconds that he was being beaten,” Mr. Savenor said. He said the attack lasted about 20 seconds.

Another spectator, Kathleen Jones, said the attacker was dressed in black, with a black mask.

“We thought perhaps it was part of a stunt to show that there’s still a lot of controversy around this author. But it became evident in a few seconds” that it wasn’t, she said.

Mr. Rushdie was quickly surrounded by a small group of people who held up his legs, presumably to send more blood to his chest.

He has been a prominent spokesman for free expression and liberal causes. He is a former president of PEN America, which said it was “reeling from shock and horror” at the attack.

“We can think of no comparable incident of a public violent attack on a literary writer on American soil,” CEO Suzanne Nossel said in a statement.

Mr. Rushdie “has been targeted for his words for decades but has never flinched nor faltered,” she added.

His 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses” was viewed as blasphemous by many Muslims, who saw a character as an insult to the Prophet Muhammad, among other objections. Around the world, often-violent protests erupted against Mr. Rushdie, who was born in India to a Muslim family. One riot killed 12 people in his hometown of Mumbai.

The book was banned in Iran, where the late leader Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 fatwa, or edict, calling for Mr. Rushdie’s death. Khomeini died that same year.

Iran’s current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has never issued a fatwa of his own withdrawing the edict, though Iran in recent years hasn’t focused on the writer.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday’s attack.

The death threats and bounty led Mr. Rushdie to go into hiding under a British government protection program, which included a round-the-clock armed guard. Mr. Rushdie emerged after nine years of seclusion and cautiously resumed more public appearances, maintaining his outspoken criticism of religious extremism overall.

He said in a 2012 talk in New York that terrorism is really the art of fear.

“The only way you can defeat it is by deciding not to be afraid,” he said.

Anti-Rushdie sentiment has lingered long after Khomeini’s decree. The Index on Censorship, an organization promoting free expression, said money was raised to boost the reward for his killing as recently as 2016.

In 2012, Mr. Rushdie published a memoir, “Joseph Anton,” about the fatwa. The title came from the pseudonym Mr. Rushdie had used while in hiding.

Mr. Rushdie rose to prominence with his Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel “Midnight’s Children,” but his name became known around the world after “The Satanic Verses.”

The Chautauqua Institution, about 55 miles southwest of Buffalo in a rural corner of New York, has served for more than a century as a place for reflection and spiritual guidance. Visitors don’t pass through metal detectors or undergo bag checks. Most people leave the doors to their century-old cottages unlocked at night.

The Chautauqua center is known for its summertime lecture series, where Mr. Rushdie has spoken before. Speakers address a different topic each week. Mr. Rushdie and moderator Henry Reese were set to discuss “the United States as asylum for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creative expression.”

This story was reported by The Associated Press. AP writers Jennifer Peltz in New York City; Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York; Michael Hill in Albany, New York; and Nasser Karimi and Mehdi Fattahi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.