Eight months after a life-threatening knife attack at a conference in the United States, writer Salman Rushdie has sharply criticized the organizers. The 75-year-old told the German weekly Die Zeit that he had given hundreds of lectures in recent years. “And I always said to the organizers, don’t worry about safety, but you have to provide a certain level of safety, like for all people who are famous.”
But “unfortunately nothing has been done at this place,” Rushdie said. There were no security measures. “When this man ran to me, no one stood in my way.” He had no idea he was unprotected on stage. “I assumed that the organizers had done what anyone would have done.”
Dramatic Scenes at American Conference
The British-Indian author was attacked and seriously injured on August 12 during the conference in Chautauqua, New York. He has been blind in one eye ever since. The alleged assailant Hadi M., an American citizen with Lebanese roots, must answer in court for attempted murder.
Public appearances despite Khomeini’s fatwa
Rushdie lived for years under strict police protection in ever-changing secret locations. Iran’s then spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for the writer to be killed for allegedly insulting the prophet Mohammed in Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses. Before the attack, however, Rushdie led a relatively normal life and made regular public appearances.
Source: Krone
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