(CNN) --
Writer Salman Rushdie, winner of the world's top literary prizes, suffered a seizure Friday before giving a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in New York, according to an AP reporter who saw a man in the scenario that began to "punch or stab" the novelist before the event.
Longtime author Rushdie's name became known worldwide in the 1980s after his novel "The Satanic Verses" sparked protests across the Muslim world.
Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran issued a fatwa (a religious edict) against Rushdie for the book.
The writer, who has long been an advocate for racial justice and free speech, told CNN in April that social unrest in the United States following the death of George Floyd was inevitable.
"I'm a huge supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement," he noted.
"The trigger was the murder of George Floyd. But, the roots are in much older grievances. And frankly, it's about time people paid attention," he said at the time.
He also stressed that the key issue is how minorities are sometimes treated in the United States.
"The problem is how the state routinely treats Black people and how endangered Black lives continue to be," she said.
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Salman Rushdie