Update (1718 EST):
Suspect is identified as Hadi Matar, 24, who had a pass to access the @chq grounds.
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) August 12, 2022
Update (1541 EST):
Update (1225 EST):
Rushdie has suffered a stab wound to the neck and the suspect is in NYPD custody. Both their conditions are unknown.
Sir, Ahmed Salman Rushdie, was stabbed moments ago at a speaking event at the Chautauqua Institute in New York. His condition is unknown, but he is seen in pictures laying on the ground.
The suspect is reportedly in custody.
Rushdie has been an outspoken critic of U.S. intervention in Iraq, religious extremism, and an avid supporter of the U.S. removal of the Taliban from power. This has caused considerable hate and targeting from terrorist groups worldwide. He was raised as a liberal Muslim, but is now an atheist.
His publication of the Satanic Verses also earned him a fatwa from Ayatollah Khomeini. On 14 February 1989 a fatwa ordering Rushdie’s execution was proclaimed on Radio Tehran by Ayatollah Khomeini, the Supreme leader of Iran at the time, calling the book “blasphemous against Islam”. Chapter IV of the book depicts the character of an Imam in exile who returns to incite revolt from the people of his country with no regard for their safety. On 7 March 1989, the United Kingdom and Iran broke diplomatic relations over the Rushdie controversy.
This is developing.
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie CH FRSL is an Indian-born novelist, whose work, combining magical realism with historical fiction, is primarily concerned with the connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, with much set on the Indian subcontinent. (Wiki)
