Salman Rushdie publishes memoir detailing stabbing at Chautauqua Institution, accused attacker heads to trial

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The accused attacker of famed author Salman Rushdie was scheduled for trial in late summer. In August 2022, Rushdie was stabbed repeatedly during a moderated discussion, leaving him badly wounded. In the wake of the attack, public figures voiced fervent support for the writer, invoking Free Speech. The news of the attacker’s trial followed the publication of Rushdie’s latest novel, which details the incident.

Key Players

Salman Rushdie has, for more than 30 years, confronted death threats over his novel, “The Satanic Verses,” which fictionalizes parts of the Prophet Muhammad’s life. Some Muslims consider the portrayal blasphemous, The New York Times reported.

Ralph Henry Reese co-founded City of Asylum, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit that “hosts the largest residency program in the world for writers living in exile under threat of persecution.”

The Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit in upstate New York, “promotes excellence and creativity in the appreciation, performance and teaching of the arts.”

Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old New Jersey man, was arrested at the scene of the Chautauqua attack.

Further Details

In 1989, after the publication of “The Satanic Verses,” Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Iran’s clerical leader, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling for Rushdie’s assassination, and a semiofficial Iranian foundation placed a bounty of more than $3 million on Rushdie’s head. In 1979, Khomeini had become Iran’s first supreme religious leader, following its Islamic revolution, which began a year prior. 

On Aug. 12, 2022, Rushdie joined Reese onstage at Chautauqua’s amphitheater to discuss the role of the United States as an “asylum for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creative expression,” according to the event’s since-deleted webpage. As Rushdie was being introduced, a man, later identified as Matar, rushed the stage and stabbed him. 

“There was a moment of shock,” Joshua Goodman, a reporter for The Associated Press who attended the event, said. “Everyone in the audience was sitting in disbelief.”

Attendees and an officer with a police dog attempted to subdue the assailant, who kept trying to stab Rushdie as people held him back, The Times reported. Goodman said the attack was “callous and deliberate.” 

“It took like five men to pull [the attacker] away, and he was still stabbing,” Linda Abrams, who sat in the front row, said. “He was just furious, furious. Like, intensely strong and just fast.”

A doctor in the audience administered aid to Rushdie and called for medics. Stabbed roughly 10 times, the author was transported via helicopter to a local hospital with wounds to the neck and chest. He underwent emergency surgery and was placed on a ventilator that night, The Times said. Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, said the author sustained liver damage, had severed nerves, and would likely lose an eye.

Reese also suffered a minor facial injury, though he was released from a local hospital that afternoon. Following his discharge, Reese called Rushdie “one of the great defenders of freedom of speech and freedom of creative expression.”

“We revere him, and our paramount concern is for his life,” Reese said. “The fact that this attack could occur in the United States is indicative of the threats to writers from many governments and from many individuals and organizations.”

At a news conference that afternoon, Major Eugene J. Staniszewski of the New York State Police identified Matar as the suspected assailant but said law enforcement did not yet know his motive, The Times reported. Chautauqua county district attorney, Jason Schmidt, said Matar was charged with second-degree attempted murder and assault in the second degree, Reuters reported.

Literary figures, public officials, family denounce attack, invoke Free Speech

Suzanne Nossel, the CEO of PEN America, a nonprofit that defends Free Speech and authors’ rights, said her organization was “reeling from shock and horror” at the news of the attack on Rushdie, who was PEN’s former president, and said she could “think of no comparable incident of a public violent attack on a literary writer on American soil.”

“Rushdie has been targeted for his words for decades, but has never flinched nor faltered,” Nossel stated. “He has devoted tireless energy to assisting others who are vulnerable and menaced. … We hope and believe fervently that his essential voice cannot and will not be silenced.”

Author Ian McEwan called the attack “an assault on freedom of thought and speech.”

“These are the freedoms that underpin all our rights and liberties,” McEwan said. “Salman has been an inspirational defender of persecuted writers and journalists across the world. He is a fiery and generous spirit, a man of immense talent and courage, and he will not be deterred.”

President Joe Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden were “shocked and saddened” by the incident.

“Salman Rushdie — with his insight into humanity, with his unmatched sense for story, with his refusal to be intimidated or silenced — stands for essential, universal ideals,” Biden stated. “Truth. Courage. Resilience. The ability to share ideas without fear. These are the building blocks of any free and open society. And today, we reaffirm our commitment to those deeply American values in solidarity with Rushdie and all those who stand for freedom of expression.”

Rushdie’s son, Zafar Rushdie, tweeted, “Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) condemned the assault, saying that “a man with a knife cannot silence a man with a pen.”

Author J.K. Rowling receives death threats over support for Rushdie

J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, tweeted a screenshot of a death threat from a Twitter user who described Matar as “a revolutionary Shia fighter (who) followed the fatwa” issued by Khomeini. Rowling had posted a tweet in support of Rushdie the day of the attack. “Feeling very sick right now,” she wrote. “Let him be ok.”

Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns the rights to the Harry Potter film franchise, issued a statement following the threat. “Warner Bros. Discovery strongly condemns the threats made against JK Rowling,” the company said. “We stand with her and all the authors, storytellers and creators who bravely express their creativity and opinions. WBD believes in freedom of expression, peaceful discourse and supporting those who offer their views in the public arena.”

Suspect pleads not guilty, NYPD internal intelligence assessment suggests motive linked to Iran 

On Aug. 13, 2022, Matar pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder and assault charges. He was held without bail. 

In court, prosecutors said Matar took a bus to Chautauqua and bought a pass that gave him access to Rushdie’s lecture. At the time of his arrest, Matar was carrying two fake IDs, a law enforcement official told The Times. Nathaniel Barone, Matar’s public defender, told CNN that Matar has been “very cooperative.”

A New York Police Department (NYPD) bulletin said Matar likely sympathized with Iran, based on a WhatsApp account linked to his phone number, Yahoo News reported.

“A preliminary investigation into the suspected perpetrator’s probable social media presence indicates a likely adherence or sympathy towards Shi’a extremism and sympathies to the Iranian regime/Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” the bulletin stated.

Rushdie taken off ventilator, begins recovery

Wylie told The Associated Press that Rushdie had been taken off a ventilator. On Aug. 14, 2022, Zafar released a statement saying his father “was able to say a few words.”

“Though his life-changing injuries are severe, his usual feisty & defiant sense of humor remains intact,” Zafar said. “We are so grateful to all the audience members who bravely leapt to his defense and administered first aid along with the police and doctors who have cared for him and for the outpouring of love and support from around the world.”

Wylie told The Times that despite Rushdie’s severe injuries, “his condition is headed in the right direction.”

Iran denies role in the attempted murder

The next day, Nasser Kanaani, the spokesperson of Iran’s foreign ministry, said the country was not involved in the attack.

“We don’t consider anyone deserving reproach, blame or even condemnation, except for [Rushdie] himself and his supporters,” Kanaani said. “In this regard, no one can blame the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the response “despicable.”

“Iranian state institutions have incited violence against Rushdie for generations, and state-affiliated media recently gloated about the attempt on his life,” Blinken said.

“The Satanic Verses” tops multiple bestseller lists

On Aug. 16, 2022, “The Satanic Verses” climbed to the top of several bestseller lists on Amazon.

The book came in as the No. 1 bestseller on Amazon’s literary satire fiction list and contemporary British and Irish literature list, CNBC reported. The Spanish version of the book also topped the bestsellers in literature and fiction in Spanish list, and “The Satanic Verses” reached 11th on the overall bestsellers list.

Hundreds gather at New York Public Library to celebrate Rushdie, Free Speech

On Aug. 19, writers, friends, and supporters of Rushdie convened on the steps of the New York Public Library (NYPL) to read excerpts from his work and promote Free Speech. The hour-long event, co-sponsored by PEN America, NYPL, and Penguin Random House, Rushdie’s publisher, featured notable writers such as Paul Auster, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Andrea Elliot, and Gay Talese.

Nossel told the crowd that Rushdie planned to watch a livestream of the event from his hospital room, Smithsonian Magazine reported. “Not even a blade to the throat,” she added, “could still the voice of Salman Rushdie.”

Author Siri Hustvedt, who read a passage from Joseph Anton, Rushdie’s third-person memoir about the aftermath of the fatwa, emphasized the need to defend “the right of free expression in fiction and nonfiction, with ruthless sincerity or wild irony,” The Times reported. Without it, “literature is nothing but an echo chamber of the fleeting platitudes and truisms that afflict every culture,” she said. 

Novelist Hari Kunzru quoted a line from The Satanic Verses before reading the opening passage of the book.

“Salman once wrote that the role of the writer is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it from going to sleep,” Kunzru said. “And that’s why we’re here, because we owe it to him to stay awake and to use our words to shape the world.”

Outcome

Rushdie releases memoir, Matar heads to trial 

In April 2024, Rushie published Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, an autobiography reflecting on the attack, the damage his body endured, and the existentialism of facing death. 

Initially, the author was reluctant to write about the event, but said he was pleased to have done so. 

“It changed my relationship to the event,” Rushdie said. “Instead of just being the person who got stabbed, I now see myself as the person who wrote a book about getting stabbed. And so it feels like it’s back in my own authorial space, and I feel more in charge of it. And that feels good.”

On “60 Minutes,” Rushdie read an excerpt from the book, directly addressing his attacker.  

“I decided that if in the end that I was obliged to go to court and testify, I would want to tell [Matar] something like this: here we stand, the man who failed to kill an unarmed 75-year-old writer, and the now-76-year-old writer he failed to kill,” he said. “And somewhat to my surprise, I find I have very little to say to you. Our lives touched each other for an instant and then separated. Mine has improved since that day, while yours has deteriorated. You made a bad gamble and lost. I was the one with the luck.”  

Rushdie later added, “you are revealed here as a would-be assassin, and an incompetent one at that.” 

Matar heads to trial 

Reportedly, Matar will head to trial in late summer 2024. According to the Chautauqua County District Attorney’s Office, jury selection will begin the week of Sept. 9.. 

As of May 16, 2024, there were no further developments.