URGENT – Threatened with death for 33 years, Salman Rushdie, the author of the Satanic verses, stabbed in New York – The first images of the attack and the attacker who was arrested – Video

6:15 p.m.: Salman Rushdie was attacked on stage. The amphitheater is evacuated”, wrote a witness on social networks No other information was available. Video images posted on social networks show spectators in a theater rushing on stage to help someone seen on the ground.

Salman Rushdie, born in 1947 in Bombay, India, two months before his independence from the British Empire, tries not to be reduced to the scandal caused by the publication of the “Satanic Verses”, which had set the Muslim world ablaze and led in 1989 to a “fatwa” calling for his assassination.

“My problem is that people continue to perceive me through the unique prism of the ”fatwa””, said a few years ago this free-thinker who wants to be a writer, not a symbol. But current events – the rise to power of radical Islam – have constantly brought it back to what it has always been in the eyes of the West: the symbol of the fight against religious obscurantism and for freedom of expression.

Already in 2005, he considered that this “fatwa” had constituted a prelude to the attacks of September 11, 2001. Forced from then on to live in hiding and under police protection, going from cache to cache, he called himself Joseph Anton, in homage to his favorite authors, Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekhov.

He has to face immense loneliness, further increased by the break with his wife, the American novelist Marianne Wiggins, to whom “Les verses…” is dedicated. Settled in New York for a few years, Salman Rushdie – arched eyebrows, heavy eyelids, bald head, glasses and beard – had resumed an almost normal life while continuing to defend, in his books, satire and irreverence.

5:45 p.m .: The photos of the attacker of Salman Rushdie who was arrested

To summarize reports:

Author Salman Rushdie was stabbed after taking stage at a Chautauqua Institute event. He received aid on-site and was able to eventually walk off stage with assistance.

This man has been detained by police: pic.twitter.com/nkQSMkJt24

—Ryan Kelly (@NotThatRKelly) August 12, 2022

5:42 p.m .: The facts took place at the Chautauqua Institute, in northern New York State, where the novelist was to deliver a speech. He was immediately taken care of, while his assailant was apprehended. The amphitheater where the meeting was to take place was evacuated for safety reasons.

5:26 p.m .: First images of the attack on Salman Rushdie who was allegedly stabbed on stage in New York

I feel sick to my stomach, sending prayers to Salman Rushdie. wtf. pic.twitter.com/G2RU3RzQJb

— ‏ًً(@politicalplayer) August 12, 2022

NOW – Salman Rushdie is stabled on stage in New York.pic.twitter.com/qFmYE6BC5E

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) August 12, 2022

5:21 p.m.: Salman Rushdie, the author whose writings led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was attacked as he prepared to give a talk in western New york. An Associated Press reporter saw a man storm the stage at the Chautauqua facility and begin punching or stabbing Rushdie as he was introduced. The author was taken away or fell to the ground, and the man was restrained.

Rushdie’s book “The Satanic Verses” has been banned in Iran since 1988, as many Muslims consider it blasphemous.

A year later, Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death. Iran has also offered more than $3 million in rewards to anyone who kills Rushdie.

Writer Salman Rushdie stabbed in New York state, several US media report pic.twitter.com/WAcEoAStlQ

— Sudinfo.be (@sudinfo_be) August 12, 2022