The author, whose writing led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was left with serious injuries all over his body in the attack which happened before he was set to give a lecture in New York. “The news is not good,” said Andrew Whaley, the British author’s agent. “Salman will probably lose an eye, the nerves in his hand were severed and he was stabbed in the liver.” Wylie added that Rushdie, 75, was now on a ventilator in hospital. The world-renowned author was the target for more than 30 years of a fatwa by Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his work The Satanic Verses, published in 1988. Police identified the shooter as Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey. Matar was arrested at the scene, with the incident occurring just before 11am local time. The motive for the attack remains unclear. Iran’s state-controlled media praised the attacker, who was immediately arrested and taken into custody, but did not report a motive for the attack. “Congratulations to this brave and conscientious man who attacked the renegade and vicious Salman Rushdie,” writes Iran’s ultraconservative newspaper Kayhan. “Let us kiss the hand of him that tore the throat of God’s enemy with a knife.” But ordinary Iranians told AP reporters they fear the attack would further isolate Iran. “This will negatively affect relations with many – even with Russia and China,” said Mahshid Barati, a 39-year-old Iranian geography teacher. An AP reporter saw Matar storm the stage at the Chautauqua Institute in western New York state, attacking Rushdie in the neck and abdomen during his introduction. The Indian-born author was pushed or fell to the floor and was quickly surrounded by a small group of people who lifted his legs, presumably to send more blood to his chest. He was taken to a nearby hospital and underwent emergency surgery, New York State Police Maj. Eugene Staniszewski told reporters. Hundreds of people in the audience gasped at the sight of the attack and then walked away. “I thought he was stabbed about six to eight times before they were able to catch the assailant,” recalled eyewitness Stacey Schlosser. Police did not provide a motive for the attack. Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses has been banned in Iran since 1988, as many Muslims consider it blasphemous as it makes suggestions about the life of the prophet Muhammad. Iran’s leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling for Rushdie’s death a year later, after the stalemated Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s decimated the country’s economy. A reward of more than $3 million has also been offered for anyone who kills Rushdie. Iran’s government has long since distanced itself from Khomeini’s decree, but anti-Rushdi sentiment has remained. In 2012, a semi-official Iranian religious foundation increased the prize for Rushdie from $2.8 million to $3.3 million. Rushdie dismissed that threat at the time, saying there was “no evidence” that people were interested in the reward. That year, Rushdie published a memoir, “Joseph Anton,” about the fatwa. The title came from the pseudonym Rushdie had used while in hiding. Rushdie rose to fame with his Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel ‘Midnight’s Children’, but his name became known around the world after ‘The Satanic Verses’. The Chautauqua Foundation, about 55 miles southwest of Buffalo in a rural corner of New York, is known for its summer lecture series. Rushdie has spoken there before. Rushdie was born on June 19, 1947, in Bombay — two months before India’s independence from the United Kingdom — and was raised by a family of non-professional Muslim intellectuals. After the fatwa calling for his assassination was issued, the author was forced to go into hiding under police protection. Since then he has lived a relatively normal life in New York, defending his books as satire.
