No writer in the world is as threatened as Salman Rushdie, who has been so for more than three and a half decades, since in 1988, the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a sharia-based death fatwa against the British-Indian author for allegedly insulting Islam with his book “The Satanic Verses,” wrote Bild’s Timo Lokoschat on Sunday, after the most man-hunted author in the world, who is 76, spoke up during a literary festival in Berlin, saying that a free Palestine would be a “Taliban-like state.”
In an interview on public broadcaster RBB in Berlin, Rushdie said: “I have been in favor of a separate Palestinian state most of my life, since the 1980s. But if there were a Palestinian state now, it would be run by Hamas and we would have a Taliban-like state – a satellite state of Iran. Is this what the progressive movements of the Western Left want to create?”
“The fact is that any normal person can only be shocked by what is happening in Gaza right now, by the level of innocent deaths,” Rushdie conceded, “But I think the demonstrators could also mention Hamas. Because it all started with them. And Hamas is a terrorist organization. And it’s strange that a young progressive student politician supports a fascist terrorist group, because in a way they do.”
The writer added: “There are not a lot of deep thoughts about this, but mainly an emotional reaction to the deaths in Gaza. That’s OK. But when it slides into antisemitism and sometimes even support for Hamas, then it becomes problematic.”
During a meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday, Rushdie weighed in on the situation in Gaza. While acknowledging concerns over the suffering there, the author stated, “I would like some protesters to address the role of Hamas, which is a terrorist organization. It’s quite perplexing that those who consider themselves political progressives would lend support to a fascist terrorist group.”
A horrific assault took place on August 12, 2022, at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York, as Rushdie prepared to deliver a lecture. An assailant stormed the stage and viciously stabbed him multiple times in the face, neck, and abdomen. The attacker was subdued and apprehended by law enforcement, while Rushdie was rushed by air ambulance to a trauma center in Erie, Pennsylvania. There, he underwent emergency surgery and was placed on a ventilator.
When asked about his health, Rushdie told RBB: “I’m doing surprisingly well. Fourteen of the fifteen injuries have healed quite well. The mobility in my left hand has almost completely been restored. Only my right eye won’t heal anymore, the knife stab was too deep. This is the worst for me, I hate it.”
Does he think about the attacker? “Less and less. But I won’t really stop thinking about him until the legal issues are all resolved and he’s convicted. I need his conviction to be able to finish this. But in everyday life, I don’t think about him much anymore. I think I got rid of it while writing this book by dealing with it (The book is his new memoir, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder– DI). The bottom line is: He’s in prison, that’s where he belongs. And I’m free, that’s where I belong.”
