The knife attack on the author of “
Satanic Verses
” thrills the intellectual class.
The British writer of Indian origin Salman Rushdie had been under a death sentence issued by Ayatollah Khomeini since 1989, following the publication of his satirical novel on the adventures of two Indian victims of an attack. .
The author, accused the Iranian spiritual guide, had blasphemed.
Thirty-three years later, hit in the neck and abdomen, Salman Rushdie is under artificial respiration.
Across the Atlantic, the writer Stephen King immediately expressed his anger, without mincing his words.
“
What kind of asshole stabs a writer (...)?
Motherfucker !
“, was offended the author of multiple thrillers.
"
Upset
", reacted more soberly on Twitter the French Caroline Fourest a few hours after the news.
The feminist journalist and writer, who notably slays the full veil, shared the moving video of the 1989 Césars ceremony where actress Isabelle Adjani, receiving her prize, read an extract from Salman Rushdie's novel on stage.
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Writer Salman Rushdie attacked on stage in New York State
From Jack Lang to Bernard Pivot
A gesture that had aroused the admiration of Bernard-Henri Lévy at the time.
The philosopher, fiercely opposed to "
Islamic obscurantism
", also paid tribute to his "
friend
" Salman Rushdie on Friday evening.
“
Unfortunately for the bastard who stabbed him, my friend doesn't have the soul of a martyr.
He wanted to be Balzac and Dickens.
And, in fact, it has become.
As such, he is immortal
,” he said on Twitter.
Invited on the set of BFMTV, the former Minister of Culture Jack Lang recalled Friday evening how he had decided in 1992 to publish in French "
Les Versets sataniques
".
“
Many French people were afraid to see him come to Paris
,” he recalls.
"
I decided to bring him against the wishes of a good part of the political class of the time, quite cowardly, and of the press
".
"
With all my heart, I wish he could survive this heinous attack
," he said.
Read alsoAttacks: despite the lull, Islamism still threatens
Also a witness to the first years of the fatwa against the British author, Bernard Pivot, famous host of the literary program Apostrophe, recalled his memories dating from 1996. “
I had received Salman Rushdie on my program, the police being present until the roofs of the television building.
Over time, his protection must have slackened.
But the hatred of Islam against the writer has never waned
,” he wrote on Twitter.
Charlie Hebdo sarcasm
Several personalities particularly committed against Islamism also reacted.
Among them, the Algerian writer and columnist Kamel Daoud, destroyer of rigorism in Islam.
“
Salman Rushdie stabbed.
And each of us with him
, ”he wrote on the social network.
Saying "
against those who want to reduce the world to a single story, that of their mad belief
", the essayist expressed his "
anger
" against the "
thousand hands that hold this kind of dagger
".
The Franco-Algerian Mohammed Sifaoui, author of the essay
Taqiyya!
and director of the islamoscope.tv channel, also expressed his indignation.
"
Physical aggression is all that remains for those who have neither arguments, nor intelligence, nor values
,” he denounced.
"
Nothing justifies a fatwa, a death sentence
", was in turn indignant Riss, chief editor of Charlie Hebdo and survivor of the attack against the newspaper in 2015. The journalist did not depart from his sarcastic pen to give his opinion on the murders committed in the name of Islam.
“
As of this writing, we do not know the motives of the perpetrator of the knife attack on Salman Rushdie.
Was he revolted against global warming, against the decline in purchasing power or against the ban on watering flowerpots because of the heat wave?
“Written in a post on the newspaper’s website.
"
We will have to repeat over and over again that nothing, absolutely nothing justifies a fatwa, a death sentence, of anyone for anything
", hammers the editor-in-chief, castigating "
little mediocre spiritual leaders, intellectually null and often culturally ignorant
”.
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Salman Rushdie is alive, after being stabbed, assures the Governor of New York
