The perpetrator’s motives are not yet clear. He has been arrested.
Rushdie is a well-known British-Indian writer who gained fame for novels such as Midnight Children and The Devil’s Verses. The Iranian imam Khomeini issued a death fatwa for the latter book.
Wilders, who has also been issued several fatwas, takes into account that the stabbing may have something to do with this. „It gives me goosebumps, the eternal fear that it can always happen once you have a fatwa… Unfortunately I also have the necessary ones. But the most important thing now is that he survives,” says the PVV leader.
‘What a horror’
Justice Minister Dilan Yesilgöz is also making himself heard. “What a horror. what everyone feared for years is unfortunately coming true, despite all the measures,” she tweeted. “I sympathize very much with him and his family. What a blow to them and the rest of the free West.
Prime Minister Rutte responds to the stabbing of Rushdie on Twitter in English: “What we always feared has happened: stabbed while he was exercising his right to freedom of expression. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones.”
Wilders received death threats, especially from Pakistan. Clergymen saw reason to do so because of his criticism of Islam. His cartoon competition in which he called for critical Mohammed drawings to be submitted also cost him a fatwa. “I’ve had several up to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. They never expire unfortunately.”