Latest news with #SatanicVerses
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'I'm over knife attack,' says Salman Rushdie
Sir Salman Rushdie says he has moved on from the knife attack which has seen his attacker jailed for attempted murder. Hadi Matar, 27, was sentenced to 25 years last month after repeatedly stabbing Sir Salman on a New York lecture stage in 2022. Sir Salman, who has a new book out later this year, told the Hay Festival that an "important moment" came for him when he and his wife Eliza "went back to the scene of the crime to show myself I could stand up where I fell down". "It will be nice to talk about fiction again because ever since the attack, really the only thing anybody's wanted to talk about is the attack, but I'm over it." Sir Salman recently told Radio 4's Today programme that he was "pleased" the man who tried to kill him had received the maximum possible prison sentence. The Midnight's Children and Satanic Verses writer was left with life-changing injuries after the incident - he is now blind in one eye, has damage to his liver and a paralysed hand caused by nerve damage to his arm. Last year, Sir Salman published a book titled Knife reflecting on the event, which he has described as "my way of fighting back". The attack came 35 years after Sir Salman's controversial novel The Satanic Verses, which had long made him the target of death threats for its portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad. In November, the author will publish a short story collection, The Eleventh Hour, his first work of fiction to be written since the stabbing. Security was tight for Sir Salman's event, with sniffer dogs present and bag checks leading to a 15-minute delay. He waved at the audience as he entered the stage and humbly gestured to them to stop applauding before joking that: "I can't see everyone - but I can hear them." He said he was feeling "excellent" although there "were bits of me that I'm annoyed about, like not having a right eye. But on the whole, I've been very fortunate and I'm in better shape that maybe I would have expected." In a wide-ranging discussion, Sir Salman also touched on US politics, declaring that "America was not in great shape". In an apparent reference to President Donald Trump, Sir Salman spoke about "the moment of hope, that image of Barack and Michelle Obama walking down the mall in DC with the crowds around them... people dancing in the streets in New York. And to go from that to the orange moment that we live in, it's, let's just say, disappointing. But he said he was still positive about the future. "I think I suffer from the optimism disease... I can't help thinking somehow it will be alright." Speaking about free speech, he said "it means tolerating people who say things you don't like". He recalled a time when a film "in which I was the villain", made around the time of the uproar over Satanic Verses, was not classified by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) "because it was in a hundred ways defamatory" but he asked them to allow its release. "So they gave it a certificate... and nobody went, you know why? Lousy movie. And it taught me a lesson. Let it out and trust the audience. And that's still my view. "I think we do live in a moment when people are too eager to prohibit speech they disapprove of. That's a very slippery slope" and warned young people "to think about it." When asked about the effect of AI on authors, Sir Salman said: "I don't have Chat GPT... I try very hard to pretend it doesn't exist. Someone asked it to write a couple of hundred words like me... it was terrible. And it has no sense of humour." Despite being considered one of the greatest living writers, Sir Salman joked that authors "don't even have that much money... except the two of us (him and host Erica Wagner) and those who write about child wizards... the Taylor Swift of literature," referring to JK Rowling. "Good on her." Rushdie 'pleased' with attacker's maximum sentence Salman Rushdie to release first fiction since stabbing Salman Rushdie: Losing an eye upsets me every day Succession creator Jesse Armstrong is writing about rich people again Jacqueline Wilson says she wouldn't return to Tracy Beaker as an adult
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First Post
16-05-2025
- First Post
Salman Rushdie attacker sentenced to 25 years for 2022 onstage stabbing
Hadi Matar, 27, who stabbed and partially blinded novelist Salman Rushdie onstage at a Western New York arts institute in 2022 was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Friday read more Defendant Hadi Matar arrives for his trial on charges of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault dating to an attack on Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, at Chautauqua County Court in Mayville, New York, US, on February 11, 2025. Reuters File The man who stabbed and partially blinded novelist Salman Rushdie onstage at a Western New York arts institute in 2022 was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Friday for an attack that also wounded a second man, the district attorney said. Rushdie, 77, has faced death threats since the 1988 publication of his novel 'The Satanic Verses,' which Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Iran's supreme leader, denounced as blasphemous, leading to a call for Rushdie's death, an edict known as a fatwa. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Hadi Matar, 27, a US citizen from Fairview, New Jersey, was found guilty of attacking the author in the Chautauqua County Court in Mayville, New York, in February. He faced a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison on the attempted murder charge. Video that captured the assault shows Matar rushing the Chautauqua Institution's stage as Rushdie was being introduced to the audience for a talk about keeping writers safe from harm. Some of the video was shown to the jury during the seven days of testimony. 'He's traumatized. He has nightmares about what he experienced,' Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said after the sentencing hearing, referring to what Rushdie suffered. 'Obviously this is a major setback for an individual that was starting to emerge in his very later years of life into society after going into hiding after the fatwa.' Also hurt in the attack was Henry Reese, co-founder of Pittsburgh's City of Asylum, a nonprofit that helps exiled writers. He was conducting the talk with Rushdie that morning. Schmidt said Matar was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the second degree attempted murder charge stemming from the attack against Rushdie and seven years for a second degree assault charged for the stabbing of Reese. The sentences will run concurrently. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Rushdie, an atheist born into a Muslim Kashmiri family in India, was stabbed with a knife multiple times in the head, neck, torso and left hand. The attack blinded his right eye and damaged his liver and intestines, requiring emergency surgery and months of recovery. Matar did not testify at his trial. His defense lawyers told jurors that the prosecutors had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the necessary criminal intent to kill needed for a conviction of attempted murder, and argued that he should have been charged with assault. Matar's attorney Nathaniel Barone said his client will file an appeal. 'I know if he had the opportunity, he would not be sitting where he's sitting today. And if he could change things, he would,' Barone said. Matar also faces federal charges brought by prosecutors in the US attorney's office in Western New York, accusing him of attempting to murder Rushdie as an act of terrorism. Prosecutors accuse him of providing material support to Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Matar is due to face those charges at a separate trial in Buffalo.
Daily Tribune
23-02-2025
- Daily Tribune
Man Found Guilty of Attempting to Kill Salman Rushdie
AFP | New York, United States An American-Lebanese man was found guilty on Friday of attempting to kill novelist Salman Rushdie by storming a stage and repeatedly plunging a knife into the "Satanic Verses" author. Hadi Matar faces up to 25 years in prison and will be sentenced in April after being convicted of attempted murder and assault charges related to the 2022 attack. Matar's legal team had argued that he was a victim of persecution following Iran's 1989 fatwa calling for Rushdie's murder over supposed blasphemy in "The Satanic Verses." Rushdie described the attack as a 'stab wound in my eye, intensely painful, after which I was screaming because of the pain," adding that he was left in a 'lake of blood.' He recalled the moment, saying, 'It occurred to me I was dying' before being helicoptered to a trauma hospital. Matar was found guilty of stabbing Rushdie about 10 times with a six-inch blade, which was shown to witnesses and the court. Jurors heard closing arguments from both prosecutors and defense lawyers before deliberating for less than two hours. Matar also shouted pro-Palestinian slogans during the trial.
Nahar Net
22-02-2025
- Nahar Net
Lebanese-American found guilty of trying to kill Rushdie
by Naharnet Newsdesk 22 February 2025, 10:45 A Lebanese-American man has been found guilty of attempting to kill novelist Salman Rushdie when storming a stage and repeatedly plunging a knife into the "Satanic Verses" author. Hadi Matar faces up to 25 years in prison and will be sentenced in April after being convicted of attempted murder and assault charges over the 2022 attack. Matar's legal team had sought to prevent witnesses from characterizing Rushdie as a victim of persecution following Iran's 1989 fatwa calling for his murder over perceived blasphemy in "The Satanic Verses." Rushdie had told jurors of Matar "stabbing and slashing" him during an event at an upscale cultural center in rural New York. "It was a stab wound in my eye, intensely painful, after that I was screaming because of the pain," Rushdie said, adding he was left in a "lake of blood." He said it "occurred to me I was dying" before he was helicoptered to a trauma hospital. Jurors heard closing arguments from both prosecutors and defense lawyers before retiring briefly to consider their verdict Friday. They deliberated for less than two hours. Matar was found guilty of stabbing Rushdie about 10 times with a six-inch blade that had been shown to witnesses and the court. The defendant shouted pro-Palestinian slogans on several occasions during the trial. - Free speech v. blasphemy - Matar, from New Jersey, previously told media he had only read two pages of "The Satanic Verses" but believed the author had "attacked Islam." After the novel was published in 1988, Rushdie became the center of a fierce tug-of-war between free speech advocates and those who insisted that insulting religion, particularly Islam, was unacceptable in any circumstance. Books and bookshops were torched, his Japanese translator was murdered and his Norwegian publisher was shot several times. Rushdie lived in seclusion in London for a decade after the 1989 fatwa, but for the past 20 years -- until the attack -- he lived relatively normally in New York. Last year, he published a memoir called "Knife" in which he recounted the near-death experience. The optical nerve of Rushdie's right eye was severed, and he told the court that "it was decided the eye would be stitched shut to allow it to moisturize. It was quite a painful operation -- which I don't recommend." Asked to describe the intensity of the pain over the attack, he said it was "a 10" out of 10. His Adam's apple was also lacerated, his liver and small bowel penetrated, and severe nerve damage to his arm left him paralyzed in one hand. "The first thing I said on regaining the ability of speech was 'I can speak'," he said to stifled laughter from jurors. British-American Rushdie, now 77, was rescued from Matar by bystanders. Venue employee Jordan Steves had told the court how he launched himself "with my right shoulder with as much force as I could manage" to help others subdue the suspect. He pointed to Matar, sitting just feet away in the ornate courtroom, when asked to identify the attacker. Iran-backed Hezbollah endorsed the fatwa on Rushdie, the FBI has said, and Matar faces a separate prosecution in U.S. federal court on "terrorism" charges. Iran has denied any link to the attacker and said only Rushdie was to blame for the incident.
Al Jazeera
22-02-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Salman Rushdie attacker found guilty of attempted murder
Hadi Matar, the man who stabbed and partially blinded prize-winning novelist Salman Rushdie at an event in New York, has been found guilty of attempted murder. Jurors delivered the verdict on Friday for Matar's assault on Rushdie on stage at an arts institute's event in August 2022. The Satanic Verses author, 77, was stabbed with a knife multiple times in the head, neck, torso and left hand, blinding his right eye and damaging his liver and intestines, and requiring emergency surgery and months of recovery. Matar, 27, can be seen in videos of the attack rushing the Chautauqua Institution's stage as Rushdie was being introduced to the audience for a talk about keeping writers safe from harm. Some of the videos were shown to the jury during the seven days of testimony. Matar was found guilty of attempted murder in the second degree as well as assault in the second degree for stabbing Henry Reese, the co-founder of Pittsburgh's City of Asylum, a nonprofit group that helps exiled writers, who was conducting the talk with Rushdie that morning. He will be sentenced on April 23 and faces up to 25 years in prison. Nathaniel Barone, a public defender representing Matar, said his client was disappointed by the verdict. 'The video, I think, was extremely damaging to Mr Matar,' Barone said outside the courtroom, referring to a video of the attack that was shown repeatedly to jurors. 'It's that old expression: A picture is worth a thousand words.' As he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs, Matar quietly uttered 'Free Palestine', echoing comments he has frequently made while entering and leaving the trial. New York-based British American Rushdie, an atheist born into a Muslim Kashmiri family in India, has faced death threats since the 1988 publication of his novel, The Satanic Verses, which Ayatollah Khomeini, then Iran's supreme leader, denounced as blasphemous. After the knife assault, American Lebanese Matar told the New York Post that he had assaulted Rushdie because he had attacked Islam. Matar also faces federal charges brought by prosecutors, accusing him of attempting to murder Rushdie as an act of terrorism and of providing material support to Hezbollah in Lebanon, which the US designates as a terrorist organisation. Hezbollah had endorsed Khomeini's fatwa against Rushdie.
