After novelist Salman Rushdie was stabbed at a New York event, his representative warned, “the news is not good.”
Andrew Wylie stated in a statement that the author, 75, may lose one eye after being attacked on stage and is now on a ventilator and unable to talk.
After the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988, Mr. Rushdie was the target of death threats from Islamists.
Hadi Matar, 24, was arrested and is believed to be from Fairview, New Jersey.
The suspect, according to the NYSP, ran on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York state and attacked Mr. Rushdie and an interviewer.
Authorities said that Mr. Rushdie was stabbed multiple times, including once in the neck and once in the stomach. A chopper landed and transported him to a hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Salman’s agent has stated, “Salman will certainly lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and wounded.”
Police are currently pursuing search warrants to investigate a backpack and electronic gadgets recovered at the center, but have not yet established a motive or charges in connection with the incident.
Ayatollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a death sentence for Mr. Rushdie a year after the publication of the book. In a fatwa, a legal order issued by an Islamic religious leader, he promised a reward of $3m (£2.5m).
Despite the Iranian government’s distancing from Khomeini’s proclamation, a quasi-official Iranian religious institution increased the bounty over Mr. Rushdie’s head by $500,000 in 2012.
The dual British-American citizen, born to non-practicing Muslims and an atheist himself, has been an outspoken advocate for free speech, defending his work on multiple occasions.
