New Delhi: Celebrated Indian-origin author Salman Rushdie whose writing led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was attacked on Friday in New York.
According to reports, he was stabled by a man when he was about to deliver a lecture at an event at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York.
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The man stormed the stage and began punching or stabbing Rushdie as he was being introduced.
The author was taken or fell to the floor, and the man was restrained.
Rushdie’s book “The Satanic Verses” has been banned in Iran since 1988, as many Muslims consider it to be blasphemous. A year later, Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death.
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A bounty of over $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-Rushdie sentiment lingered. In 2012, a semi-official Iranian religious foundation raised the bounty for Rushdie from $2.8 million to $3.3 million.
Rushdie dismissed that threat at the time, saying there was “no evidence” of people being interested in the reward.
That year, Rushdie published a memoir, “Joseph Anton,” about the fatwa.