MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Salman Rushdie is “on the road to recovery,” his representative said Sunday, two days after the author of “The Satanic Verse” was stabbed and seriously injured during a lecture in upstate New York. confirmed.
The announcement followed news that the acclaimed author was taken off the ventilator on Saturday so he could talk and joke. Rushdie, 75, has suffered liver damage and amputated nerves in his arm and eye, and Wiley previously threatened to lose his injured eye. was said to be high.
Rushdie’s son, Zafar Rushdie, said in a statement Sunday that “his life-altering injuries are serious, but his usual spirited and rebellious sense of humor remains.” A statement on behalf of the family also thanked the “audience who bravely jumped to his defense”, the police, doctors and the “outpouring of love and support from around the world”. did.
Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, N.J., spoke at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education and retreat center, in what prosecutors called a “targeted, unprovoked, pre-planned attack.” He pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges.
The attack was met with global shock and outrage, as well as accolades for the man who was given death threats and a $3 million bounty on his neck in “The Satanic Verse” for more than 30 years. Rushdie spent nine years in hiding under a British government protection programme.
“It’s an attack on his body, his life, and all the values he’s stood for,” Henry Rees, 73, told The Associated Press. They went on stage together and suffered cuts, bruises, and other minor injuries to their foreheads.
Writers, activists, and government officials cited Rushdie’s bravery in the face of intimidation and her longstanding advocacy of free speech. an inspirational advocate,” and actor and author Kal Penn called him a role model “for an entire generation of artists, especially for many of us in the South Asian diaspora.”
“With his insight into humanity, his unparalleled sense of storytelling, and his refusal to intimidate or silence, Salman Rushdie represents essential and universal ideals,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement Saturday. . “truth. courage. Resilience. Ability to share ideas without fear. ”
Born in India to a Muslim family and lived in the United Kingdom and the United States, Rushdie is known for her surreal and satirical prose, beginning with the Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel Midnight’s Children. Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
1988’s “The Satanic Verses” was imbued with a magical realism that angered some Muslims who viewed the novel’s elements as blasphemy.
They believed that Rushdie had insulted the Prophet Muhammad by naming the character Mahound, the medieval degeneration of “Muhammad.” The characters were prophets in a city called Jahiliah, which in Arabic refers to the period before the arrival of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. Another sequence includes a prostitute with the same name as some of Muhammad’s nine wives. The novel also suggests that Muhammad, not Allah, may have been the true author of the Qur’an.
The book had already been banned and burned in India, Pakistan and elsewhere when Iran’s great Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death in 1989. rice field. There hasn’t been much focus on Rushdie in recent years.
Iran’s state-run newspaper Iran Daily on Sunday hailed the attack as “fulfilling God’s decree”. Another hardline newspaper, Kayhan, called it “God’s vengeance” to partially appease Muslim anger.
Investigators were trying to determine whether the suspect, who was born almost a decade after the novel’s publication, acted alone. .
“His resources are not important to me. I’m here.
Schmidt said Matar received advance passes to the author’s speaking event and arrived a day early with a fake ID. A judge ordered Matar to be held without bail.
Public defense attorney Nathaniel Barone complained that authorities took too long to bring Matar before a judge, leaving him “chained to a bench in the state police barracks”. He emphasized that Matar has the right to a presumption of innocence.
Barone says that after the hearing, Matar has been in candid contact with him, trying to find out if his Clynet has any psychological or addiction problems.
Matar was born in the United States to parents who emigrated from Yalon in southern Lebanon, village chief Ali Teefe told the AP. The flag of the Iran-backed Shia militant group Hezbollah, along with portraits of Hezbollah and Iranian leaders, were visible across Yarrow before visiting journalists were asked to leave on Saturday.
A Hezbollah spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
In Tehran, some Iranians interviewed by the AP hailed the attack on a writer they believed had undermined their Islamic faith, while others feared it would further isolate their country. Worried.
A state trooper and county sheriff’s deputy were assigned to lecture Rushdie, and police said officers made the arrest. But then some visitors to the idyllic vacation colony over the years wondered why there hadn’t been tighter security, given its history of threats to Rushdie.
On Friday, an AP reporter witnessed the attacker stabbing and punching Rushdie about 10 or 15 times. Moderator Reese told CNN he initially thought the attack was a prank.
After the publication of Fatwa in 1989, interest in “The Satanic Verses” rose again as it topped the bestseller list.
One of Rushdie’s ex-wives, author and TV host Padma Lakshmi, tweeted on Sunday that she was “relieved” by Rushdie’s prognosis.
“I was worried and speechless, but I was finally able to breathe,” she wrote. “Now I’m hoping for a speedy healing.
Italy reported from New York. Associated Press journalist Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran. Kareem Chehaib of Beirut. John Gambrel of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Jill Lawless of London and Julie Walker of New York contributed to this report.
