Rushdie, 75, was stabbed yesterday during a lecture in Chautauqua, New York. He is on a ventilator and is likely to lose an eye, his literary agent reported. Rushdie is unable to speak and is reported to have severely damaged nerves in his arm as well. The writer was also stabbed in the liver.
Rushdie has been facing threats because of his book since 1988 The Devil’s Verses, which is considered blasphemous by many Muslims. It is not yet clear whether he was injured because of his novel. The publication of the controversial book led to protests in Iran in the 1980s.
The then ruler of that country, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa against the author, a death sentence. Rushdie was forced to go into hiding for years after the fatwa was issued. The Dutch publisher of Salman Rushdie, Pluim, will reprint and republish older work by the author, including his best-known and most controversial book The Devil’s Verses.
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