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Indian-born author Salman Lucie was stabbed before a speech in Shauthuah, New York, on Friday, a stark reminder of the “fatwa” put into his life by Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Rushdie will speak at the Shautauqua Institute on Friday after living more than 30 years under the threat of an edict calling for his death issued by Ayatollah Khomeini in response to his book The Satanic Verse. I was stabbed in the neck before.
The Iranian government has long distanced itself from President Khomeini’s orders, but anti-Rushdie sentiment has lingered. In 2012, a semi-official Iranian religious foundation increased Rushdie’s bounty from his $2.8 million to his $3.3 million.
Rushdie dismissed the threat at the time, saying there was “no evidence” that people were interested in the reward.
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In the same year, Rushdie published a memoir on the fatwa, Joseph Anton.
The 1988 publication of Satanic Verses was considered blasphemous by many Muslims. , six protesters died.
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Over the years, Rushdie has been an outspoken supporter of free expression and has endured death threats that have led to him hiding behind round-the-clock security.
“It is freedom of speech that allows us to be free people. And there are those who seek to silence dissent,” The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression told Fox News Digital in a statement following the attack on Rushdie. “Mr Rushdie has long understood the need for free speech. He is one of its strongest advocates: ‘Free speech is everything and the ball game’.”
Richard Goldberg, senior adviser to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy think tank, said it was time for the American public to become aware of the existence of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), given the attack on Rushdie and the planned assassination of John Bolton. Stated. usa.
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“This is a truly horrifying event,” said Goldberg. “We need full court coverage from federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to determine the extent of foreign influence and direction. We need facts, and those facts are already catastrophic. We cannot be prejudiced or censored based on the politics of the Iran nuclear deal, and we need an honest account from our leaders of the threat Iran and other foreign countries pose to our homeland.”
The Islamic Republic News Agency, which said Rushdie was “attacked with a knife”, called him a “renegade writer” after the attack.
He also described “The Devil’s Verse” as “a novel that blasphemes Islam.”
Meanwhile, another regime-owned outlet, FARS News, also described him as an “apostate” and accused him of “insulting the Prophet of Islam (PBUH)” with “anti-religious content” in the book. did.
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Rushdie’s attacker has not yet been identified, and the circumstances of his condition are not immediately clear, but reports from the scene said he was airlifted to a nearby hospital and survived without needing CPR. It is said that he was still breathing.
Fox News’ Ashley Bittay, Adam Shaw and AP contributed to this report.