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Depending on who you ask, Salman Rushdie is either a gifted novelist that expertly combines magical realism with historical fiction in his writing or he’s an enemy in the eyes of many Muslims from Iran.

Unfortunately, the latter group had their way recently when Rushdie was ambushed on stage during an event in New York where he suffered life-threatening stab wounds to the neck.

This comes as the author has received numerous death threats ever since a fatwa calling for Muslims to murder him was made in 1989 by first supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The decades-long bounty on the head of Rushdie stems from his 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses. The book uses his signature magical realism to tell a story around the Islamic prophet Muhammad and words of “satanic suggestion” that he allegedly confused for divine revelation. Many Muslims today denounce the theory, citing the ‘isma of Muhammad that deems him too divine to have ever been swindled by Satan. The call for his murder by Ayatollah Khomeini caused Rushdie to suffer multiple assassination attempts that unfortunately resulted in the 1991 death of close associate Hitoshi Igarashi, a Japanese translator for the novel. Things got so bad that police protection was appointed to the British-Indian author by the UK government.

More on the shocking recent stabbing of Salman Rushdie below, via TMZ:

“The author, who was formerly married to ‘Top Chef’ host Padma Lakshmi, was set to give a speech Friday at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. Reports say Rushdie was on stage, when someone jumped up and struck him multiple times. Reports say Rushdie was stabbed during the incident.

His current condition is unknown, but the attacker has reportedly been taken into custody.”

So far NY State police have only confirmed that Rushdie was stabbed in the neck and also received a minor head injury. Many of his peers in the literary world, including famed fiction author Stephen King, have been sending prayers his way following an incident that many are still finding hard to believe actually happened.

We join the masses who are currently praying for Salman Rushdie to make a full recovery.

 

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Author Stabbed In Neck On Stage After Receiving Death Threats For Over 30 Years  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com