After being stabbed in the neck and abdomen, author Salman Rushdie was taken off the ventilator last night. His injuries are still serious. His agent Andrew Wylie confirmed the 75-year-old novelist could be able to talk and did not give further details.
The 24-year-old attacker named Hadi Matar who was arrested after the incident at a literary event in New York pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges. The prosecutor called the attack a "preplanned crime," reported Washington Post.
Rushdie was speaking at the Chautauqua Institution near New York City when the attack happened. Matar's social media page indicates that he is sympathetic to "Shia extremism" and the causes of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC).
Rushdie's 1998 book "The Satanic Verses'' led to a fatwa, a religious decree, by Iran's first supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The novel was deemed disrespectful of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad by some Muslims. The author went into hiding for several years following the backlash.
US President Joe Biden condemned the "vicious attack" on the Indian-born British-American novelist. He praised the artist's "refusal to be intimidated or silenced." He added that his family with Americans and people across the world are praying for Rushdie's health and recovery.
British politician Rishi Sunak said the attack should serve as a wake-up call to the West over Iran, reported the Sunday Telegraph. Iran had urged Muslims to kill him over his novel. After the attack, Iran's government did not respond to the incident. However, several Iranian newspapers praised the attacker.
Sunak said Iran's reaction to the attack strengthens the case for proscribing the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) which controls Iran's elite armed and intelligence force. He added that the West needs a new and strengthened deal and much tougher sanctions. "If we can't get results then we have to start asking whether the JCPOA is at a dead end."
In 2015, Iran curbed its nuclear programme under the JCPO (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) in return for relief from the US, EU, and UN sanctions. "The situation in Iran is extremely serious and in standing up to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin we can't take our eye off the ball elsewhere," he added.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell took to Twitter to "strongly condemn the attack on Salman Rushdie." He also wished the author a speedy recovery. The Spanish politician said that international rejection of such criminal actions that violate fundamental rights and freedoms is the only path toward a better and more peaceful world.