Author Salman Rushdie, who was forced to spend a chunk of his life in hiding because his book, The Satanic Verses, offended Islamic religious authorities in Iran who imposed a murder fatwa on him, was stabbed in the neck and had to be airlifted to a hospital when he was attacked on stage.
Author Salman Rushdie, being stabbed at an event in New York State on Friday, suffered “10 to 15” blows in the attack, eyewitnesses said. One of them said she thought it was “a stunt” at first.
“This guy ran on to platform and started pounding on Mr Rushdie,” said Rabbi Charles Savenor, who was in the audience for the lecture at Chautauqua Institution, about 100 km from the city.
A reporter from AP said the attacker “punched or stabbed Mr Rushdie 10 to 15 times”.
“At first you’re like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then it became abundantly clear in a few seconds that he was being beaten,” Mr Savenor told the news agency. He said the attack lasted about 20 seconds.
The media, at least in this country, has wrapped itself in knots to avoid using the “I” word.
Back when Rushdie wrote The Satanic Verses, it was controversial. Today, any kind of criticism of Mohammed is considered hate speech and censored to such a degree that the media would not even report what an Indian elected official said about Mohammed’s pedophilic tendencies, only to denounce it as hurtful and hateful to Muslims.
Today, a new author could never publish something like that. And the media is uncomfortable even discussing what it is that Rushdie wrote.
The various condemnations likewise don’t mention Islam, Islamic terrorism or any beyond generic concepts like “freedom of expression.”
Long before this attack, the sharia censorship that Iran wanted to impose on Americans had already been achieved.
