He was due to give a speech at the event
Salman Rushdie has reportedly been stabbed on stage in New York.
According to witnesses, the award-winning author was attacked whilst on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York where he was due to give a speech.
The attack happened as he was being introduced on stage, Bloomberg reports.
Rushdie fell to the floor and received treatment, whilst the attacker was detained by police. Rushdie was able to walk off stage.
Following the release of his controversial 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, Rushdie had been the target of Islamists and received death threats from Iran in the 1980s.
Salmon Rushdie stabbed at Chautauqua. He’s on the stage being treated. Before his scheduled speech. pic.twitter.com/xqeM79WseB
— Mary Newsom (@marynewsom) August 12, 2022
The book was banned in Iran as it was considered blasphemous by many Muslims, and the year after its publication the country’s leader at the time, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa calling for Muslims to kill Rushdie along with his editors and publishers.
Despite Iran distancing itself from the fatwa in recent years, it has never officially been withdrawn.
The 75-year-old was born in India but moved to Britain as a child. In 1981 he won the Booker Prize, cementing himself as one of the most respected writers of the his era.
Following the publication of The Satanic Verses, Rushdie round the clock police protection and spent several years in hiding.
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