Two months after he was stabbed by an Islamic extremist, author Salman Rushdie has since lost sight in one eye and lost the use of one hand, according to his agent.
“[His wounds] were profound, but he’s [also] lost the sight of one eye… He had three serious wounds in his neck,” agent Andrew Wylie said in an interview this weekend with the Spanish newspaper El País.
“One hand is incapacitated because the nerves in his arm were cut. And he has about 15 more wounds in his chest and torso. So, it was a brutal attack,” Wylie added.
However, asked whether Rushdie’s still in the hospital, Wylie refused to respond, likely because he still fears for his client’s life.
Update on Salman Rushdie
“He has lost the sight of one eye…One hand is incapacitated because the nerves in his arm were cut.”
Notably, Wylie won’t say whether Rushdie is still in hospital—because he has presumably been forced to resume a life in hiding https://t.co/GbxMTFPcgZ
— Patrick Radden Keefe (@praddenkeefe) October 23, 2022
Islamic extremists have been after Rushdie ever since he wrote the novel “The Satanic Verses” in 1988.
“The Satanic Verses received immediate and violent backlash from Muslims who found the book’s depictions of Islam insulting. Within months of its publication, the novel was banned in a number of countries including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Sudan. His native country of India banned the book’s import,” according to NPR.
“The controversy also ignited violent protests and attacks on bookstores around the world. Multiple people connected to the novel were also under threat — including Hitoshi Igarashi, a Japanese scholar who translated the book, who was killed in 1991.”
Most famously, in 1989 then-Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie. Following the fatwa, Rushdie went into hiding for a period of six years, until he suddenly reappeared publicly in 1995.
“Six years after the fatwa was issued, Rushdie began to appear in public again. In September 1995, he attended his first publicly scheduled appearance, at a London panel discussion called ‘Writers and the State,'” according to the Deccan Herald.
“At the time, Rushdie was never without heavily armed bodyguards. Still, as Sarah Lyall of The New York Times reported [in 1995], ‘he travels, eats in restaurants, appears at bookstores and is a regular fixture at London’s smartest literary parties,'” the paper notes.
But that freedom that he fought so hard to re-attain has been threatened once more thanks to Hadi Matar, the extremist who stabbed him in August.
As previously reported via station WNBC, “A preliminary law enforcement review of Matar’s social media accounts shows he is sympathetic to Shia extremism and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps causes. … There are no definitive links to the IRGC but the initial assessment indicates he is sympathetic to the Iranian government group.”
This is relevant because Shia refers to one of two sects of Islam. The other sect, Sunni, is far more prevalent throughout the world, with Shia Muslims mainly being confined to a few nations, most notably Iran.
Bloody details of Salman Rushdie stabbing on NY stage by New Jersey man with fake driver’s license https://t.co/rgI9UUb5cc
— American Wire News (@americanwire_) August 13, 2022
As of October 2022, the fatwa still remained active, despite Rushdie’s attempts to apologize for offending Muslims.
“Author Salman Rushdie on Saturday apologized to Moslems angered by his novel ″The Satanic Verses,″ but Iran indicated his words were not enough to win him a reprieve from a death sentence ordered by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,” the Associated Press reported in 1989.
What remains unclear is whether Rushdie will go into hiding again. Speaking with El País, all Wylie said was that he and his client had been keenly aware all these years that a random attack was always possible.
“I think the attack was probably something that Salman and I have discussed in the past, which was that the principal danger that he faced so many years after the fatwa was imposed is from a random person coming out of nowhere and attacking [him]. So, you can’t protect against that because it’s totally unexpected and illogical. It was like John Lennon’s murder,” he said.
The fact that he said “you can’t protect against” such insanity suggests Rushdie won’t be cowed again. Though on the other hand, Wylie’s refusal to answer the hospital question suggests the opposite.
What’s known for certain is that Islamic extremists still hate Rushdie AND his supporters with a passion. Supporters like fellow author J.K. Rowling, who herself faced death threats after posting a tweet in support of Rushdie after he was stabbed.
‘You are next’: JK Rowling shares horrifying death threat she received following Rushdie stabbing via @americanwire_ – https://t.co/b3CIZgedVv
— Bo Snerdley (@BoSnerdley) August 15, 2022
“Horrifying news. … Feeling very sick right now. Let him be ok,” was all she tweeted about her longtime friend.
But that was enough to trigger a death threat from a Twitter user who went by the name Meer Asif Aziz.
“Do not worry you are next,” he tweeted to her.
His account has since been suspended, though the hate he expressed still remains in the air like a pungent odor that simply won’t dissipate …
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Vivek@bizpacreview.com
V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.
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