Salman Rushdie says he has thought about visiting – Latest News
Beginning on Valentine’s Day of 1989, the Booker Prize successful writer Salman Rushdie had a sword hanging over his head. For a period of time, threats of death adopted him all over the place. The bloody fruits of his life spent alternately on the run and in public — with near-lethal penalties — is captured in “Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie,” a new documentary about Rushdie, his marriage and the risks of fanaticism.
Plagued by threats, Rushdie lived in hiding for some 9 years, operated underneath the pseudonym Joseph Anton (cribbing the primary and final names of two favourite writers: Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekov) and traveled by armored Jaguar.
Author Salman Rushdie attends the Cliveden Literary Festival 2024 at Cliveden House on Saturday, September 21, 2024, in Windsor, England. Getty Images
This was for good motive: Islamist chief Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had issued a fatwa towards him, encouraging Muslims to homicide Rushdie, who was born into a Muslim household himself. The mandate felt as severe as a mafia contract.
Followers of Khomeini cursed Rushdie and rioters burned effigies of the writer. All of that was set off by his e book “The Satanic Verses” (1988), which Khomeini believed blasphemed Mohammed.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ASSOCIATED PRESS
“This was horrifying,” Rushdie advised The Post about seeing his face set alight on worldwide newscasts. “I was already reasonably well known as a writer. But suddenly, every taxi driver knew who I was. It felt like my character was being rewritten for me by this public hatred.”
Over time, nevertheless, Rushdie went back to residing like a well-regarded novelist round city. He could possibly be noticed residing it up together with his then spouse Padma Lakshmi and even did a cameo on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” by which he gave Larry David advice on how to deal with the fatwa that had been leveled towards him. Clearly, Rushdie was snug with who he was and what he had gone by means of.
“I actually stopped thinking [anything] would happen,” he advised The Post. “I’ve been living in New York since the year 2000 and I’ve done probably hundreds of public events in that time without there ever being any trace of a problem. So, you think, okay, that chapter’s closed.”
Then on August 12, 2022, that chapter reopened dramatically. Rushdie had simply stepped on stage on the Chautauqua Institute, in Chautauqua, NY, to offer a speak on the significance of defending writers. About to start, he was bum-rushed by a blade-wielding radical named Hadi Matar. The extremist stabbed Rushdie 15 instances during an assault that broken his liver, wrecked his left hand, took out his proper eye.
Salman Rushdie attends the 68th National Book Awards at Cipriani Wall Street in New York, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017, 5 years earlier than he was attacked. Getty Images
This ghastly assault and its aftermath are unraveled in “Knife,” directed by Alex Gibney. Underscoring all of it, the film exhibits Rushdie’s lacerated eye with brutal gore. Rushdie mentioned he cried after discovering out the attention will stay unusable. Four years after, he advised The Post, “I wake up every day and think about not having my right eye. Losing a quadrant of my vision makes everything more difficult.”
Ironically, Rushdie’s attacker admitted to having by no means learn “The Satanic Verses.” In the film, Rushdie expresses grave doubt that Khomeini had both.
As “Knife” unfolds, Rushdie refuses to offer the would-be assassin any oxygen, opting to keep away from his identify and call him Ass, which is shortened to A. Rushdie, who spurns an eyepatch in favor of signature eyeglasses he designed with one lens tinted darkish, mentioned that a follow-up assault is way from his thoughts: “I worry more about someone bumping into me while talking on their phone.”
Alex Gibney attends the premiere of “Musk” during the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival at Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026. Getty Images
In directing “Knife,” Gibney was blessed with a trove of archival footage. For that, he can thank Rushdie’s spouse, Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Soon after racing to see Rushdie in his room on the Pennsylvania hospital to which he was airlifted, Griffiths started filming. Her intimate videos, offering close-up views of ache and resilience, comprise the center of the film. She is credited as cinematographer and govt producer.
“The shock lifted a bit when my camera arrived,” Griffiths, a skilled photographer for more than 20 years, advised The Post. “It wasn’t a situation where we were, like, ‘we’re going to make a documentary.’ The camera became my diary, and I did not need to burden anyone with the complicated feelings I was having. I needed to focus on Salman’s survival and care. The camera helped remind me that we were not just powerless victims trapped in this trauma ward.”
Salman Rushdie and his spouse Rachel Eliza Griffiths attend the Cliveden Literary Festival 2024 at Cliveden House on Sunday, September 22, 2024, in Windsor, England. Getty Images
For Rushdie and Griffiths, the documentary “is a way of taking command of the story. It is a way of saying that we get to tell the story.” As for the completed product, mentioned Rushdie, “This is not just [an attempted] murder story. It’s also a love story.”
Last yr, the hateful Matar was sentenced to 25 years in jail. Rushdie, alternatively, is flourishing, very a lot on the mend and writing his subsequent e book. He’s having fun with New York again and residing the life of an esteemed writer with out worrying about “the one crazy kid” who took Khomeini’s bait and went for him.
Despite not being talked about by identify within the film, A. does get a “Knife” cameo of kinds, with Rushdie imagining a assembly him for a sit-down within the jail the place he is being housed. It begs the query of Rushdie’s need to satisfy his assailant for actual. “I had a brief fantasy about that,” Rushdie mentioned. “But Eliza thought it was a terrible idea and I agree with her. I doubt that he would open his heart to me.”
