On August 12, local time, salman Rushdie (also translated as Rushdie, also translated as Rushdie, the translation of the work is now translated as Rushidi) was suddenly attacked by a young man while attending an event in New York State, USA, and is still relying on a ventilator to maintain his life. Since the 1980s, Rosidi has been hunted down globally by the Iranian government and civil society organizations for his controversial work "Satanic Psalms," with a reward of millions of dollars. Local police said the suspect's motives were still under investigation.
Rusidi (center right) was injured in the attack, and the suspect was subdued and sent off the stage. Image source: Associated Press
The Associated Press and Reuters reported that on the same day, Russidi was invited to give a lecture on artistic freedom at the Chautauqua Institute in western New York. Just as the host introduced him to the scene, a man suddenly rushed to the stage to carry out the attack.
Police did not release the weapons used by the suspects, but witnesses at the scene said the man, dressed in black and wearing a black mask, repeatedly attacked Rusidi's chest and neck with his fists or knives about 10 to 15 times, a process that lasted about 20 seconds. The 73-year-old Lucidi collapsed on the podium after the attack, and the host suffered minor facial injuries.
Rusidi was attacked and fell to the ground. Image source: Associated Press
Later, someone rushed to the stage to pull the suspect away from Russidi, and a state police officer who provided security for the lecture event arrested him.
Police confirmed the suspect was Hadi Matar, 24, from Fairview, New Jersey, who had previously purchased tickets to the lecture. Police said they were working with federal investigators to determine the motive for the crime.
Suspect Hadi Matar was arrested. Image source: Associated Press
A doctor in the audience dealt with the bloodied Rosidi. Later, first responders arrived at the scene and took Rosidi to the hospital by helicopter, where he was operated on for hours.
Andrew Wylie, Rusidi's book agent, told the media by email that Russidi had to rely on a ventilator to survive that night, had a stabbed liver, severed nerves in one arm and possibly lost an eye, police said.
Some participants pointed out that the Schottoqua College did not conduct a security check on the audience that day, but only checked their admission certificates.
Born in 1947 to a Kashmiri Muslim family in British India, Rusidi grew up in Britain. He acquired U.S. citizenship in 2016 and now lives in New York. In 1988, Rusidi published his fourth novel, The Satanic Psalms, which was accused of alluding to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a blasphemy and mockery of Islam that caused an uproar in the Islamic world. The Satanic Psalms are also banned in many countries, including India, Sudan, Bangladesh, South Africa, Egypt, Iran, Kenya, and Kuwait.
Rosidi (infographic)
The Muslim community initially wanted authors and booksellers to add an insert to the book, declaring that the story was purely fictional, but was rejected. As the incident escalated, the Muslim community took to the streets to protest and burned Roussidi's works and portraits to express their anger. In February 1989, Iran's supreme spiritual leader, Khomeini, issued an Islam decree offering a $1.5 million reward calling on Muslims around the world to hunt down Russidi and all those associated with the publication of satanic psalms. Iran and britain also broke off diplomatic relations as a result.
After that, Russidi retired from public life for a time, retreated under the protection of the British police, and was frequently transferred to different locations. Riots around the world over Satan's Psalms have killed at least 45 people, including its translators and booksellers. In July 1991, Igarashi, a Japanese translator of Satan's Psalms, was assassinated. At that time, Igarashi was found lying in the elevator hall of the University of Tsukuba, with multiple fatal injuries on his body. The case has not been solved, and the identity of the murderer is unknown. The weekly Bunchun reported in 1998 that the Japanese police suspected that the killer was a Bangladeshi student who had left Japan the day Igarashi's body was found. The Japanese side suspended the investigation for fear of damaging relations with the Islamic State.
Just a few days before Igarashi was assassinated, the Italian translator of Roussidi's work was stabbed and seriously injured in his home in Milan. In 1993, a Turkish translator was attacked by a mob that killed 37 people. In October of the same year, the Norwegian publisher of the Satanic Psalms was shot in Oslo.
In 1998, Iran and Britain resumed diplomatic relations, and as a prerequisite for the resumption of diplomatic relations, then-Iranian President Khatami announced that he would no longer support global pursuits. Rusidi has also lived in the public in recent years. But religious hardliners, including Khomeini's successor, Khamenei, insist that the order can only be revoked by its issuer and that the killing order will be in effect forever because Khomeini is dead. There are reports that some Iranian groups have raised millions of dollars worth of bounties for the murder of Russidi.
A translation of Rushdie's Midnight's Children
Rusidi is also the author of "Midnight Child", "Shame", "Moorish Last Sigh" and other works, of which the magical reality novel "Midnight Child" is his most famous masterpiece, which won the British Booker Prize in 1981. The political novel Shame alludes to the division of the South Asian subcontinent and Pakistan's turbulent recent history, leading not only to the banning of the book in Pakistan, but also to charges of defamation.
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