More than 33 years later, Rushdie, 75, was stabbed by a man at an event Friday at the Chautauqua Institute in western New York as he was about to begin his lecture. Authorities have identified the attacker as 24-year-old Hadi Matar, a New Jersey resident, but they do not yet know the motive behind the attack. Rushdie was stabbed in the neck and in the stomach. He is currently on ventilator and his liver has been damaged. This attack has shocked the whole world. World leaders and literary figures have said they were shocked by the attack on Rushdie.
Salman Rushdie was born in Mumbai
Ahmed Salman Rushdie was born on June 19, 1947, into a Kashmiri Muslim family in Bombay (now Mumbai). In the same year India got independence from British rule. Rushdie is the son of lawyer Anees Ahmed Rushdie and teacher Negin Bhatt, who studied at the University of Cambridge.
Rushdie has written 14 novels
‘Grimus’, ‘Midnight’s Children’, ‘Shame’, ‘The Satanic Verses’, ‘Aaron and the Sea of Stories’, ‘The Moor’s Last Sai’, ‘The Ground Beneath Her Feet’, ‘Fury’, ‘Shalimar The The Clown’, ‘The Enchantress of Florence’, ‘Luca and the Fire of Life’, ‘Two Years at Months and Twenty Eight Nights’, ‘The Golden House’ and ‘Quichote’. He wrote a memoir called ‘Joseph Anton’. He used the same pseudonym for himself while in hiding.
Booker Prize for Midnight’s Children
He was awarded the prestigious Booker Prize in 1981 for ‘Midnight’s Children’, set against the backdrop of India’s journey from British rule to independence and partition. This award gave him new recognition in the literary world around the world, but a few years later, Iran’s supreme leader issued a fatwa against him because of ‘The Sanetic Verses’ published in 1988. The controversial book ‘The Satanic Verses’ has been banned in Iran since 1988. Many Muslims believe that Rushdie has committed blasphemy through this book.
Millions of dollars bounty announced for Rushdie’s murder
Iran also announced a reward of more than $3 million for the person who killed Rushdie. The novel also managed to make it to the final list of novels shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Because of this book, Rushdie had to go into hiding for nine years. After the fatwa was issued, Rushdie lived in a tightly guarded residence under the protection of the British police.
Rushdie’s book was banned in India too
The book was banned in many countries even before the fatwa was issued against Rushdie, including his native India. His entry into India was banned for more than a decade. This ban was lifted after 11 years in 1999. Apart from this, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka also banned the book.
Achievements of Salman Rushdie
A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University, Rushdie is also a past president of the Penn American Center. He was knighted in 2007 for his ‘service to literature’. He was appointed ‘Commander de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ of France in 1999. Rushdie has been honored with the European Union’s Aristian Award, UK and Germany’s ‘Author of the Year’ awards, India’s Crossword Book Award, London International Writers Award. In addition he has been honored with the James Joyce Prize from University College Dublin, the St. Louis Literary Prize, the Carl Sandberg Prize of the Chicago Public Library, and a US National Arts Award.
World leaders condemned
The attack on Rushdie has been condemned by leaders around the world, from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, French President Emmanuel Macron to US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.