Salman Rushdie, author of Satanic Verses, attacked, stabbed in the neck

August 12, 2022

Author of the controversial novel, Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie, was stabbed in the neck by a man who rushed the stage as the British-Indian author was about to speak at an event in western New York on Thursday morning, according to law enforcement and witnesses.

The attack happened as Rushdie was about to address the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education centre and summer resort, located near Buffalo.

Rushdie was taken by helicopter to a hospital; while his condition is unclear, one witness told reporters that her husband saw Rushdie “able to walk with assistance” after the ambush.

Rushdie’s work, particularly his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, has attracted fierce protests, death threats, and even a fatwa for his assassination by the former religious leader of Iran, who accused Rushdie of blasphemy.

A $4 million bounty on his head remains active to this day.

A witness, Ward Pautler, told reporters that Rushdie “had just come out and sat down” on stage when he was attacked by an individual who Pautler described as “heavy set and wearing a black headpiece.”

Sitting just three rows away from the small stage next to his brother-in-law, Pautler, 76, said that at first he thought the assailant was “punching Rushdie, but then I realized he was stabbing him.”

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