The motive for the attack is not known, while the New York police said there were no indications of possible threats before the event.
New York police have identified the perpetrator of the murderous attack on the famous author Salman Rushdie. As it became known, this is 24-year-old Hadi Mattar, a resident of New Jersey.
According to the police report, the assailant rushed onto the stage as Rushdie was about to deliver a speech at a Chotokwa Foundation event and stabbed the 75-year-old author in the neck, who collapsed to the floor. The perpetrator was immobilized by bystanders, before being arrested by the police, it was clarified.
The motive for the attack is not known, while the New York police said there were no indications of possible threats before the event.
Salman Rushdie was airlifted to the hospital and underwent hours-long surgery. There is no update on his health status.
The book “Satanic Verses” written by Salman Rushdie caused an uproar in several countries of the Muslim world in 1988 after it was deemed to have “blasphemous” content. A few months later, Iran’s then-supreme religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a religious decree calling for Rushdie’s assassination.
For several years the author was in hiding, as he feared for his life. Iran’s government announced in 1998 that it no longer supported the religious decree (“fatfa”), but extremist Muslim organizations offered a million-dollar reward for anyone who assassinated the Indian-born author.
RES-EMP
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