Author Salman Rushdie at the Blue Sofa at the 2017 Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany.
Image Hannelore Foerster / Getty
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Image Hannelore Foerster / Getty
Author Salman Rushdie at the Blue Sofa at the 2017 Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany.
Image Hannelore Foerster / Getty
For the past 33 years, world-renowned author Salman Rushdie has endured intimidation for his work.
Rushdie was forced to go into hiding after publishing her 1988 novel, The verses of Satan. It took nearly a decade for Rushdie to become more vocal and visible – though he continued to write stories. Today, Rushdie is widely known as a vocal defender of the expressive arts.
On Friday, he is expected to speak on that matter at the Chautauqua Institute in western New York when a The 24-year-old man went on stage and stabbed the author in the neck and chestNew York State Police said. Rushdie is still in the hospital. His attacker, Hadi Matar, was charged with attempted murder and assault.
Rushdie, 75, was born in India and later raised in the UK. He has written 14 novels, many of which have been translated into more than 40 languages and received numerous awards. In 2008, Rushdie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
Why some people find Rushdie’s work offensive
The controversy began after Rushdie published her fourth novel, The verses of Satanin 1988.
The story revolves around two Indian Muslims living in England. It simulates parts of the Prophet Muhammad’s life and in part suggests that the founder of Islam may have flirted with polytheism.
Whether that interpretation is supported by Islamic texts has been disputed by historians, but in a 2012 interview with NPR’s Morning version, the author says that it is next to the point.
Rushdie, who was born into a Muslim family, said: “My purpose is not only to write about Islam.
“In my view, the story – as it exists in the novel – reflects quite well the new idea of religion that was born because it shows that it may indeed have flirted with compromise, but later rejected it; and when it won, it was quite benevolent.”
The backlash included violent protests, bookstore fires and Rushdie’s assassination orders
The verses of Satan received immediate and violent backlash from Muslims, who found the book’s depiction of Islam offensive.
Within months of publication, the novel was banned in several countries including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Sudan. His native India banned the import of the book.
The controversy also sparked violent protests and attacks on bookstores around the world. Many people associated with the novel were also threatened – including Hitoshi Igarashi, a Japanese scholar who translated the book, who was killed in 1991.
In 1989, the Iranian leader called for Rushdie’s assassination and a bounty was given several million dollars. Iran withdrew from the religious order, also known as the fatwa, in 1998, declaring that it would “not support or hinder Rushdie assassination activities.” However, the order has not been officially withdrawn.
Rushdie wrote a memoir about his time in hiding published in 2012. He lives under the pseudonym Joseph Anton.
He told NPR in 2012. “One of the weirdest aspects of it was that nobody thought this was going to last very long, and this was going to work out. ‘ Instead, in the end, it took almost 12 years. ”
In one statementLiterary liberal group PEN America said Rushdie had been targeted for decades but “never wavered nor faltered.”
“We cannot think of an overtly violent attack against a writer on American soil,” CEO Suzanne Nossel wrote. “We hope and believe fervently that his essential voice cannot and will not be silenced.”
