Salman Rushdie, a renowned author, was stabbed in the neck and abdomen Friday by a man who rushed the stage as the author was about to give a lecture in western New York. A bloodied Rushdie, 75, was flown to a hospital and underwent surgery.
Rushdie's 1988 novel was viewed as blasphemous by many Muslims, who saw a character as an insult to the prophet Muhammad, among other objections. Across the Muslim world, often-violent protests erupted against Rushdie.
Salman Rushdie has faced death threats for more than 30 years since the publication of The Satanic Verses.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the former supreme leader of Iran issued a fatwa on Feb 14, 1989, ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie and putting a price on his head of several million dollars.
Many people connected to the book were also targeted, and several were injured. In July 1991, Hitoshi Igarashi, the novel's Japanese translator, was stabbed to death and its Italian translator, Ettore Capriolo, was badly wounded. In October 1993, William Nygaard, the novel's Norwegian publisher, was shot three times outside his home in Oslo and seriously injured.
US police identified the attacker as Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey. He was arrested at the scene and was awaiting arraignment. Matar was born a decade after The Satanic Verses was published. The motive for the attack was unclear, a police officer said.
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