A day after the attack, Rushdie is still in hospital with a number of serious injuries. But the author of The Satanic Verses is off the ventilator and can be contacted again. Rushdie’s literary agent, Andrew Wylie, confirmed this to the Associated Press, without giving further details.
Rushdie was stabbed Friday as he was about to give a lecture in the western New York town of Chautauqua. A man jumped on stage and stabbed him several times, including in the neck and liver. Wylie reported Friday night that Rushdie was unable to speak, his liver was damaged, an arm nerve was severed and he is likely to lose one eye.
Rushdie had just been announced and was about to walk to the podium when the writer and his interviewer Henry Reese were attacked. A state trooper who was there to protect Rushdie immediately pulled the man off the writer. Spectators also rushed in, including a doctor, who stopped the bleeding while waiting for a helicopter to take Rushdie to a hospital.
The suspected perpetrator, identified by police as 24-year-old Hadi Matar from the city of Fairview, was overpowered and arrested. He is suspected of assault and attempted manslaughter for stabbing the writer, the Public Prosecution Service of Chautauqua reports.
The suspect is officially charged with ‘attempted second-degree murder’, which means that, according to the Public Prosecution Service, he deliberately wanted to kill someone, but without premeditation. In the Netherlands that would amount to attempted manslaughter. If found guilty, he could face up to 25 years in prison in New York.
Matar himself claims to be innocent. His lawyer stated this to the judge on Saturday. The suspect was also present at the hearing.
The motive of the perpetrator is not yet clear. The police and the Public Prosecution Service are investigating this further. Based on the results of this, the charges may be aggravated.
Matar’s parents are from Lebanon, but their son was born in the United States. Hadi Matar allegedly posted a photo of Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeiny on his Facebook page. Texts would also show that he had sympathy for his Shiite ideas, and for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Rushdie had been under the threat of an Islamic attack for decades. In 1989, after the release of Rushdie’s book The Devil’s Verses, Khomeiny issued a fatwa against the writer, putting a $3 million reward on his head. Many Muslims found Rushdie’s novel offensive to the Quran.
That fatwa, including the promised amount, has never been revoked. Under the threat of an attack, Rushdie had to keep his whereabouts secret for years, always surrounded by bodyguards at performances. Over the course of 33 years, security had gradually diminished, and Rushdie was eventually even able to lead a more or less normal life.
According to his new Dutch publisher Mizzi van der Pluijm, Rushdie has wrested himself out of it: ‘He had to do an awful lot to get out of that fatwa, he forced a life for himself that was livable for him. He’s always been tough in the way he handled it, he’s kept writing emphatically, performing, because if you don’t, they’ve won, he said.’
And now this, says Van der Pluijm. “Now the big question is: if he survives this, how will you live on? This must be horrible.’
Rushdie broke through as a writer with the book Midnight’s Children, which won him the Booker Prize in 1981. In 1988 he released the book The Devil’s Verses in which he plays with themes from the Quran. That immediately sparked a storm of protest in the Islamic world, and eventually Khomeini’s fatwa that would make Rushdie’s life hell for years to come.
Rushdie always maintained contacts in the literary world, and traveled all over the world. He also had regular contact with Dutch writers, including Adriaan van Dis. Van Dis put himself in the Rushdie Defense Committee Netherlands committed to Rushdie for years. Van Dis shows himself on Friday evening in a reaction in the AD shocked by the attack: ‘It turns out that there is still a madman walking around who wants to catch 3 million dollars.’
Biden: Shocked by ‘cruel attack’
U.S. President Joe Biden has expressed his disgust a day after Rushdie’s stabbing. He speaks of a “cruel attack” and says he and his wife Jill were “shocked and saddened” when they heard the news.
The president says he is praying for Rushdie’s recovery. Biden praises the writer’s “insight into humanity.” His intransigence despite all threats, and his sense of stories, also stand for ‘universal ideals’, according to the president.
‘Truth. Courage. Resilience. The ability to share ideas without fear. These are the building blocks of any free and open society. And today we reaffirm our commitment to those deeply held American values in solidarity with Rushdie and all those who stand up for freedom of expression,” Biden said. He also thanks the people who gave first aid to Rushdie and who stopped the suspect.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had already released a brief statement on behalf of the White House on Friday. He called the violence ‘terrible’.