The author of ‘Los versos satanicos’ is attacked in public more than for a single book for the whole work defending freedom
Salman Rushdie has been on death row in Iran for decades on charges of blasphemy. This Friday, dressed in white to participate in a literary act near New York City, he was injured with a stab in the neck. According to police information, when Rushdie was about to speak, he was stabbed in the neck by an attacker who jumped on stage in surprise. His health is currently unknown and the attacker, who has not been identified, has been arrested.
Salman Rushdie (Bombai, India, 1947) was known worldwide as a writer who was harassed in 1988 by a fatwa of the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini for his disrespectful treatment of the Muslim religion. strong hues and themes of India, the social condemnation mixed with religious politics, the exploration of family saga like typical western novels and a style that is sometimes experimental in language, albeit with obvious plots.
For ‘Versos satanicos’, which brought him a death threat that kept him isolated and protected for ten years, he debuted with the magnificent and hyperbolic work ‘The children of midnight’, for which he won several prizes (including the Booker, 1981) and translations.
Books ‘Shame’ and ‘The Last Sigh of the Moor’ followed, also awarded with Anglo-Saxon prizes. He has practiced the story and the journalistic chronicle, such as a trip he made to Nicaragua once the Sandinista revolution had triumphed, a cause with which he sympathized. From that experience he wrote ‘The Smile of the Jaguar’. Already internationally famous, he continued his literary career, always defending the freedom he himself lost during his work.
‘Satanic Verses’ follows the strategy of his stories prior to publication, but its background can also be found in later works against Islamic fundamentalism. The most representative is ‘Fury’, which he wrote after the 9/11 attacks in the United States, where he already lived, and which was published that same year, 2001. Iran’s government eventually distanced itself from Khomeini’s “fatwa,” but in 2012, a semi-official Iranian religious foundation increased Rushdie’s pay from $2.8 million to $3.3 million.
On February 14, 1989, a BBC journalist rang the telephone at Rushdie’s London home. It was interesting to know what the writer thought about the “fatwa” that Khomeini, Iran’s supreme leader, had just launched against him, urging all Muslims in the world to become the author of “The Satanic Verses,” a work that the ayatollah regarded as blasphemous against Islam. It wasn’t just Rushdie to kill. Also to all the editorial “accomplices” who dared to spread the heretical message. Khomeini offered a juicy reward: if anyone died in the attempt, they would be martyred directly in paradise, with their corresponding houris (virgin women). In case that didn’t sound too convincing, there was also a hefty cash reward.
Since then, Rushdie has kept his pen sharp against extremism in his regular columns, about which ‘The New York Post’ and ‘The New Yorker’ fight. Also on Twitter and Facebook, where he condemned the brutal attack on “Charlie Hebdo” and defended free speech: “Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire and yes, our disrespect without fear.” Even now he dares to answer Islamic radicals, such as those who murdered nine magazine employees, a visitor and two police officers. Almost always with a good dose of humor, which is still revealed as one of the best weapons against the threat of “jihad”. He demonstrated it at a party for Article 19, an international anti-censorship lobby group: “Knowing how close you are,” he told them, “I appreciate you not trying to collect the bounty.”
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
