Writer Salman Rushdie survives on life support after being stabbed in New York

By Joshua Goodman

The writer Salman Rushdie, threatened with death by the Iranian regime in the 1980s after the publication of his novel

, was stabbed in the neck and abdomen on Friday by a young man who jumped on stage when the author was preparing to give a lecture in western New York.

Rushdie, 75, was flown to a hospital by helicopter and underwent surgery.

His agent, Andrew Wylie, said Friday night that the

had a damaged liver, severed nerves in his arm and an

Police identified the attacker as Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey.

He was awaiting an arraignment following his arrest at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit educational and tourist center where Rushdie was scheduled to give a speech.

Matar was born a decade after the publication of

.

Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey. NBC News

The motive for the attack is unclear, state police Maj. Eugene Staniszewski said.

'The Satanic Verses'

Rushdie's novel published in 1988 was considered blasphemous by many Muslims, who saw a character as an insult to the Prophet Muhammad, among other objections.

The book was banned in Iran, where the late leader, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or edict, in 1989 calling for Rushdie's death.

Iran's theocratic government and its state media gave no reason for Friday's attack.

In Tehran, some Iranians interviewed Saturday by The Associated Press news agency praised the attack on a perpetrator they said tarnished the Islamic faith, while others worried it would further isolate the country from him.

Writer Salman Rushdie is transported to a helicopter after being stabbed in Chautauqua, New York, on August 12, 2022.TWITTER @HoratioGates3 / via REUTERS

A reporter from this agency witnessed the attacker stabbing Rushdie as he was being introduced.

Dr. Martin Haskell, a doctor who was among those rushing to help, described Rushdie's injuries as "serious but recoverable."

The moderator of the event, Henry Reese, 73, co-founder of an organization that offers residences to writers who suffer persecution, was also attacked.

Reese suffered a facial injury and was treated and released from a hospital, police said.

He and Rushdie planned to discuss the United States as a refuge for writers and other artists in exile.

After the attack, some of the visitors wondered why security had not been tightened at the event, which featured a state trooper and a county sheriff's deputy, considering the decades of threats against Rushdie and the bounty on his head, offering more than 3 million dollars to whoever kills him.

Writer Salman Rushdie receives medical attention after an attack at the Chautauqua Institution, New York, on August 12, 2022.Joshua Goodman / AP

Rabbi Charles Savenor was among the approximately 2,500 people in the audience. 

The assailant ran onto the stage “and started hitting Mr. Rushdie.

At first you are left thinking: What is happening?

And then it became very clear within a few seconds that they were hitting him," Savenor said, adding that the attack lasted about 20 seconds.

Another bystander, Kathleen James, said the attacker was dressed in black, with a black mask.

“We thought that maybe it was part of a maneuver to show that there is still a lot of controversy surrounding this author.

But in a few seconds it became clear [that he wasn't],” he recounted.

Matar, like other visitors, had obtained a pass to enter the 750-acre grounds of the Chautauqua Institution, said Michael Hill, the institution's president.

The suspect's attorney, public defender Nathaniel Barone, said he was still gathering information and declined to comment.

Matar's house was blocked by the authorities.

international condemnation

The stabbing reverberated from the quiet city of Chautauqua to the United Nations, which issued a statement in which the secretary general, Antonio Guterres, expressed his horror and stressed that freedom of expression and opinion should not be confronted with violence.

Writer Salman Rushdie in Hamburg, Germany, on November 12, 2019. Tristar Media / Getty Images

Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday's attack, which headlined a nightly news bulletin on Iranian state television.

From the White House, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan called the attack "reprehensible" and said that

"This act of violence is appalling," Sullivan said in a statement, "we are grateful to the good citizens and first responders for helping Mr. Rushdie so quickly after the attack and to law enforcement for their swift and effective work, which it's ongoing."

Rushdie has been a leading spokesman for free speech and liberal causes, and the literary world recoiled from what Rushdie's friend and novelist Ian McEwan described as

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"Salman has been an inspiring advocate for persecuted writers and journalists around the world," McEwan said in a statement.

he added.

PEN America Director General Suzanne Nossel said the organization was not aware of any comparable acts of violence against a writer in the United States.

Rushdie was once president of the group, which defends writers and freedom of expression.

Anti-Rushdie sentiment

Following the publication of

, often violent protests broke out throughout the Muslim world against Rushdie, born in India to a Muslim family.

At least 45 people were killed in the riots sparked by the book, including 12 people in Rushdie's hometown of Mumbai.

In 1991, a Japanese translator of the book was stabbed to death and an Italian translator survived a knife attack.

In 1993, the book's Norwegian publisher was shot three times and survived.

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Khomeini died the same year he issued the fatwa calling for Rushdie's death.

Iran's current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, never issued a fatwa of his own withdrawing the edict, though Iran has not targeted the writer in recent years.

The death threats and bounty led Rushdie into hiding under a British government protection programme, which included a 24-hour armed guard.

Rushdie came out after

and cautiously resumed his public appearances, maintaining his outspoken criticism of religious extremism in general.

The writer said in 2012 during a talk in New York that terrorism is really the art of fear.

he said.

Anti-Rushdie sentiment has endured long after the Khomeini decree.

The Index on Censorship, an organization that promotes free speech, said money was raised to increase the reward for his murder as recently as 2016.

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An AP journalist who went to the Tehran office of the 15 Khordad Foundation, which put up the millions for Rushdie's reward, found it closed Friday night over the Iranian weekend.

No one answered calls to his listed phone number.

In 2012 Rushdie published a memoir,

, on the fatwa.

The title came from the pseudonym Rushdie used while he was in hiding.

Rushdie rose to fame with his 1981 Booker Prize-winning novel

, but his name became known around the world after

.

Regarded as one of the greatest living British writers, Rushdie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2008 and earlier this year made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, a royal award for people who have made a significant contribution to the arts, science or public life.

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson lamented on Twitter that Rushdie was attacked "while exercising a right that we should never stop defending."

Located about 55 miles (89 kilometers) southwest of Buffalo in a rural corner of New York, the Chautauqua Institution has served for more than a century as a place of reflection and spiritual guidance.

Visitors do not pass through metal detectors or subject to bag checks.

Most leave the doors of their centuries-old cabins unlocked at night.

The center is known for its summer conference series, at which Rushdie has spoken before.

In a nightly vigil, a few hundred residents and visitors gathered to pray, listen to music and observe a long moment of silence.

one man yelled.