Paying the Freight for Highlighting Realities

"Though his life-changing injuries are severe, his usual feisty and defiant sense of humour remains intact."

"[Our family is grateful for the] audience members who bravely leapt to his defence [and police, doctors] [and] the outpouring of love and support from around the world."

Zafar Rushdie, son updating Salman Rushdie's health condition

Salman Rushdie   David Levenson/Getty

 

Perhaps it was inevitable. He had security personnel on duty for years. There had been an earlier, ailed attempt on his life. His novel "The Satanic Verses" hit a raw nerve in Islam, earning him a fatwa from none other than Iran's original revolutionary Islamist leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. India-born Rushdie was a British citizen and the British government lost no time n mounting protection for their world-famous author. He would eventually be knighted in recognition of his stellar place in the world of celebrity authorship.

When he was attacked by a knife-wielding man identified as 24-year-old Hadi Matar just as he was being introduced as the evening's guest speaker on Saturday in New York at the Chautauqua Institution, he suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye. According to his literary agent, 75-year-old Rushdie is likely to lose the use of the affected eye. But taken off a ventilator, out of a coma, his "condition is heading in the right direction".

 

The man who has been under threat of death by outraged Islamists incited by their leaders to kill Rushdie, has taken necessary measures for security for three decades, with a $3-million bounty on his head. He still reacted with equanimity and a resolve to continue writing and dedicating himself to support of free speech. The nine years he spent under the U.K.'s protective program failed to dampen his personal mission to speaking as he would, writing what he would.

 

Also injured, standing on that stage before Rushdie had the opportunity to begin his lecture, was 73-year-old Henry Reese, co-founder of Pittsburgh's City of Asylum. He suffered a gash to his forehead, bruising and related minor injuries. The evening's discussion was meant to focus on writers' safety and freedom of expression.  

If anyone was a symbol of violent persecution of writing pungent observations heavy on satire, he is that person. His Islam-offending book that earned him the infamous fatwa in 1989 featured a thinly veiled Muhammad in Mahound, a prophet in a pre-Islam city on the Arabian Peninsula. Prostitutes feature in the book whose names reflect those of the Prophet's nine waves. A novel implying that the Koran, Islam's sacred scripture, was written by Muhammad, not divinely scribed.

It's often been said that publicity sells, and it does. Irrespective of the category it falls into; critical or praise-full, publicity good or bad piques the public interest and where books are concerned, will place them high on best seller's lists. The Satanic Verses had long since reached the pinnacle of popularity as reading material, with a frisson of danger.

Indeed, there was and remains danger in threats of death for anyone involved in its publication. Two translators met their deaths in vengeance Islamist attacks. The author of the book might have been the third, but fate has other plans for him, aside from a new book being published. He will now no doubt write of this ordeal for a fascinated public. The Satanic Verses has now once again hit best seller lists. 

 

Rushdie's is the last laugh.

"Just witnessed the horrific assassination attempt on #SalmanRushdie's life. He was stabbed multiple times before attacker was subdued by security," 

"Some intrepid members of audience went on stage. What courage will be expected of us next to defend even the smallest freedoms?"

Author Carl LeVan 

Joshua Goodman/AP