Home » The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie recovering; What happened to the attacker?

The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie recovering; What happened to the attacker?

By /

Salman Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses, was attacked on August 12, 2022, by 24-year-old Hadi Matar while he was speaking at an event in New York State. Salman Rushdie, a novelist, is recovering from several stab wounds he sustained during an alleged attempted assassination.

Rushdie, who has received death threats due to his writing, was due to deliver a speech Friday morning at the educational facility Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, located in southwestern New York.

The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie recovering

  • Rushdie’s representative, Andrew Wiley, stated on Sunday morning that the author’s condition was improving but still had a long recovery ahead of him. According to Wiley, the road to recovery has started now that he is off the ventilator
  • Rushdie is having surgery and was on a ventilator – a report from his representative on Friday.
    • According to the said representative, the author will probably lose one eye as a result of the assault.
    • The stabbing also had the nerves in his arm cut, as well as liver damage.
  • The interview finished with him saying that Rushdie’s recovery will be a long process but in the right direction.

During the event in New York…

  • A statement from the New York State Police said that a guy ran onto the stage at 11 a.m. and attacked Rushdie and an interviewer.
  • As Rushdie was being introduced, a man entered the stage. He then began to attack Rushdie, according to a reporter who was present at the occasion. Both the author and the assassin were on the ground.
  • According to the authorities, the author had numerous stab wounds, one in the neck and one in the abdominal area. Rushdie, 75, was receiving medical attention on stage following the attack. He then had a helicopter ride to a hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania.
  • A New York State Police trooper detained Matar at the scene of the assault. This is after audience members attacked him and restrained him. According to officials, the suspect had a pass to enter the event.

What happened to the interviewer?

According to investigators, the incident left the interviewer, Henry Reese, 73, with a slight head wound. He then was able to get home after receiving treatment for a facial injury at a local hospital.

Chautauqua Institution expressed its disbelief at what happened

  • At the news conference on Friday, Chautauqua Institution President Michael Hill stated that safety has been their top priority and that there were state troopers and sheriffs on site.
  • As per Hill, they will keep trying to offer the highest level of security they are capable of. In their history, nothing similar has ever occurred. Chautauqua has always been a very secure location.

What happened to Hadi Matar (attacker)?

Following the 1988 publication of his book The Satanic Verses, the British-Indian author received numerous death threats for several years.

  • A New York State Police trooper detained Matar at the scene of the assault after audience members attacked him and restrained him, said the authorities.
  • Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said that the man has been charged with second-degree assault and attempted second-degree murder. Also, according to Schmidt, he was arraigned Friday evening and remanded without bail.
  • The Associated Press reported that Matar entered a not guilty plea to the accusations in court on Saturday. He entered the plea on behalf of an attorney.
  • The judge ordered him detained without bail in response to the prosecution’s claims that the attack was organized, targeted, and unprovoked, plus the public defender’s assertion that Matar has a constitutional right to be presumed innocent.

Hadi Matar might be with or a follower of Shi’a extremism

  • A preliminary investigation into the suspected perpetrator’s likely social media presence suggests an expected loyalty or sympathy toward Shi’a extremism as well as compassion for the Iranian regime/Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation.
  • Major Eugene Staniszewski, a troop commander for the New York State Police, told reporters during a press conference on Friday that police believed the suspect perpetrated the crime alone and that they were in the process of obtaining search warrants for items including electronics and a backpack discovered at the scene that they believe belong to the suspect.

FBI will be assisting during the investigation

  • The authorities claim that images of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the head of the pro-Iranian militia organization in Iraq, who is now dead because of American forces in a drone attack in Baghdad on January 3, 2020, were on Matar’s phone.
  • The FBI will be assisting during the said investigation and surely raise the attention of higher Law enforcement officials.

New York Governor expresses her deepest sympathies and assured to help with the investigation

Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, described the incident as awful and said she had ordered state police to provide more assistance in the case as needed.

Salman Rushdie has been receiving death threats since the publication of The Satanic Verses on 1989

  • Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late Iranian president, charged Rushdie with blasphemy over the book and issued a fatwa against him in 1989 that called for his execution.
  • Rushdie spent many years in hiding, which he detailed in his memoir Joseph Anton, published in 2012. The book was a nominee for the Samuel Johnson Prize, the UK nation’s top nonfiction honor.
  • Although an Iranian religious organization continues to offer a bounty for Rushdie’s murder, the foreign minister of Iran declared in 1998 that his nation no longer supported the fatwa against Rushdie. The group raised the reward from $2.8 million to $3.3 million in 2012.
  • Other followers have come under assault because of The Satanic Verses, which gets a ban in a number of nations. At the university where he’s a professor in literature, Hitoshi Igarashi, who translated the book into Japanese, was one of them and was fatally stabbed in 1991.
OTHER NEWS: Why retiring Bill Russell’s jersey in all NBA teams is a bad idea

If you have any questions regarding this article, feel free to ask in the comments below. For more content, stay with us, here at Spiel Times.

Make sure you subscribe to our push-notifications and never miss an update from the world of video games, cinema, and sports. You can also follow us on Twitter @spieltimes for the latest PS5 restock and drop. Until next time, Stay Safe and Happy Gaming!

SOURCE: abc news

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Start typing and press enter to search