Rushdie was speaking a short time ago in New York when a man in black rushed the stage and began punching or stabbing him. Reports are not clear if he was injured or the extent of injuries.
One article says that police have confirmed that there was a stabbing.
But that same article also says that the assailant has been reprimanded, so I’m not sure if I trust them.
Was he also given the comfy chair?
This is so sad. I hope he recovers quickly and completely. It is just incredible how long hate lasts.
The NYT article linked to above now says that he has multiple stab wounds, at least one to the neck, but he’s alive and has been transported to a local hospital by helicopter.
Pulling for Salman. I always feel slightly more intelligent whenever I have watched him on TV. Some bastards on this Earth just can’t let go of a grudge (at least, I am assuming).
Horrific, hope he fully recovers. He always knew this was a possibility.
We should wait to hear the details of course but hard to look past the likelihood of religiously inspired violence.
I think even before we know the end point of this it is worth reminding ourselves of exactly why he does what he does and why he thinks it is worth that risk.
Fuck. One of my favorite authors. I hope he pulls through okay.
Younger folks probably don’t recall this incident:
My dad was pretty pessimistic at the time. He had never heard of Rushdie, but he said that with Iran having issued a fatwa calling for Muslims to kill Rushdie, Rushdie would have to watch his back for the rest of his life, even if Iran rescinded that fatwa. At present the motives of Rushdie’s attacker aren’t known, but if I had to place a bet, I’d bet my dad was right.
The NYT link above has an update with Rushdie’s agent David Wylie saying the author is in surgery. He didn’t give an update on his condition.
Reading some of the witness accounts make me seriously concerned about the extent of his injuries. From the link in the OP:
Roger Warner of Cleveland, Ohio, was sitting on the front row at the amphitheater with his wife when Rushdie was attacked. Mr. Warner said he saw a tall, slender man leap onto the stage from the left side and begin attacking Salman Rushdie. He thought the man had punched Rushdie three or four times in the face. Then he saw the blood. “He was covered with blood and there was blood running down onto the floor,” Mr. Warner said. “I just saw blood all around his eyes and running down his cheek.”
Holding him in the light and hoping for a speedy and completel recovery.
I loved Midnight’s Children. I was thinking about it again recently, because I just read A Suitable Boy. I started The Satanic Verses, but I just couldn’t get into it and never finished it.
Heads and faces bleed a lot. While of course the attack was serious, I wouldn’t get too worried based on reports of a lot of blood.
Possibly stabbed in the abdomen as well.
From the NYT update:
Darn. That is not what I wanted to hear.
This is terrible news. May Salman make a quick recovery
I also hope that the assailant is prosecuted to the full extent of the law treating this as a hate crime.
From the Times story, one of life’s bitter ironies.
“Mr. Rushdie was scheduled to give a talk about the United States as a safe haven for exiled writers.”
It sounds like he’ll live, and still be able to see (albeit with only one eye) and speak (once the ventilator is removed). I hope that’s enough for him to find the remainder of his life fulfilling. I also hope that he lives many more years before dying a peaceful and natural death - the biggest middle finger possible toward the anti-intellectual brutes who sought to extinguish him before his time.