Various world leaders, personalities and organizations condemned this Friday the attack against the renowned writer, Salman Rushdieperpetrated at noon in Chautauqua, New Yorkby a 24-year-old man identified as Hadhi Matarwho is detained by the authorities.
The World Writers Association, PEN Internationalissued a statement expressing solidarity with Rushdie and his family, and deploring the continued threats and violence against independent authors.
“Salman is an esteemed and celebrated author and a beloved member of the PEN community, who has faced threats for his work for years. No one should be attacked, let alone assaulted, for peacefully expressing their opinions. We wish our dear friend a speedy recovery. Our thoughts are with him and his family, ”reads the text released by British media.
For his part, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnsonexpressed his dismay at the terrible incident and expressed through Twitter: “Dismayed that Sir Salman Rushdie has been stabbed while exercising a right that we should never stop defendingr”.
The French President, Emmanuel Macronalso condemned the bloody episode and said that Rushdie “embodied freedom and the fight against obscurantism” and was the victim “of a cowardly attack by the forces of hatred and barbarism.”
In a statement, Rushdie’s publishers at Penguin Random House They said: “We condemn this violent public assault, and our thoughts are with Salman and his family at this most distressing time.”
Meanwhile, exiled Iranian journalist and writer, Behrouz Boochanisent a message on his Twitter account and noted that “Through the Fatwa, the Iranian regime is responsible for the attack on Salman Rushdi. This attack is not only an attack on freedom of expression, but shows how dictators have extended their reach around the world to challenge security”
Author Taslima Nasreen, who was forced to flee her home in Bangladesh after a court said her novel Lajja offended the religious faith of Muslims, said she now feared for her own safety following Rushdie’s attack.
There are several cases of writers and journalists who have been forced into exile due to death threats from the Iranian regime. Dr. Kylie Moore-Gilbert, author of The Uncaged Skyand who spent 804 days imprisoned under false charges of espionage, showed her dismay and regretted that “Over 30 years and a $3 million reward, Khomeini’s venomous fatwa has finally caught up with Salman Rushdie. A black day for the freedoms of expression, religion and conscience. A tragic day for literature. We must pray that Rushdie survives this.”
In the afternoon of this Friday, in a message to the newspaper The New York Times, the agent of Salman Rushdie, Andrew Wylie said that the writer survives on assisted breathing.
“There is no good news,” said the agent. Salman will probably lose an eye and has severed nerves in one arm, and the liver was also stabbed and damaged.”
Shortly before this statement, the New York State Police revealed that the writer had been admitted to Eire Hospital in Pennsylvania, where Rushdie “was still in the operating room” six hours after the attack, which gives an idea of the seriousness of the attack. your state.
The attacker is a 24-year-old man named Hadi Matar, and a resident of New Jersey. At the moment, he has not yet revealed the motives for his attack, which occurred at 11 am local time when Rushdie was preparing to participate in a conference on refuge cities.
Rushdie had been facing a death sentence since 1989, when Iran‘s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa condemning the publication of his book Satanic Verses, considered blasphemous for its criticism of Islam.
(With information from EFE and The Telegraph)
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Source-www.infobae.com