Salman Rushdie: A literary life defined by fear, censorship and persecution

Salman Rushdie is a celebrated British author of Indian origin. However, despite all his literary achievements, his life has been defined by persecution from religious extremists, specifically radical Muslims.

Rushdie resurfaced in February 2023, giving an interview for the first time after being stabbed by a religious extremist while giving a conference in a public venue in Chautauqua, New York in August 2022.

Pictured: Rushdie in Germany in 2019.

In the New Yorker interview, Rushdie commented he's having a hard time writing since his left hand is almost paralyzed due to the attack, where he was stabbed a dozen times. Still, he was lucky to survive.

The author of 'The Satanic Verses' also claimed to the New Yorker that, ever since he survived the attack, he has been dealing with PSTD and has had difficulty writing.

Pictured: The public space in Chautauqua, New York where Salman Rushdie was attacked.

The attack was perpetrated in an upstate New York amphitheater by 24-year-old Muslim extremist Hadi Matar, son of Lebanese immigrants.

Hadi was accused of attempted second-degree murder and attempted assault, which he pleaded not guilty. He remains in prison, waiting for trial.

“I’ve always thought that my books are more interesting than my life,” Rushdie remarked during the interview. “Unfortunately, the world appears to disagree.”

Ahmed Salman Rushdie was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1947. Rushdie’s father was a successful Muslim businessman who raised young Salman with English as his primary language at home.

Rushdie studied in England, first at the Rugby School and then at the University of Cambridge, where he got a degree in history in 1968.

Image: Vadim Sherbakov / Unsplash

His second novel, 'Midnight Children,' was an unexpected international success, cementing his career as a novelist.

However, it was Rushdie’s fourth novel, 'The Satanic Verses', that made him globally famous, though not for the reasons he would have enjoyed.

Muslim leaders in Britain and elsewhere denounced the novel, particularly the depiction of a character based on the prophet Mohammad, as blasphemous.

On February 14, 1989, the supreme and religious leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, declared a fatwa against Rushdie. A reward was offered to anyone willing to execute him.

The book was subsequently banned in countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Sudan, South Africa, Kenya, and Singapore.

'The Satanic Verses' not only caused a rift between Muslim and Western nations but also divided British society at the time. Pictured, you can see the book being burned in Bradford, England, in 1989.

In 1990, Rushdie issued a formal apology to those that had taken offense to 'The Satanic Verses.'

However, Ayatollah Khomeini responded that it didn't matter if “Salman Rushdie repents and becomes the most pious man of all time”, it was the responsibility of every Muslim to employ any resource at hand to end the writer's life.

Since then, numerous acts of violence, including bombings and assassinations, have been carried out by Muslim extremists citing the book as their main motivation.

The Japanese translator of 'The Satanic Verses' was found stabbed to death in 1991. While the translators of the Turkish and Italian editions survived assassination attempts. William Nygaard (pictured), the book’s publisher in Norway, survived three shots in the back in 1993.

Rushdie went into hiding. He took the name Joseph Anton and kept a low profile. He continued to write from hiding and, in 2012, he published a ‘memoir’ about Joseph Anton, detailing his life during and after the height of 'The Satanic Verses' controversy.

The government of Iran has changed its stance on Rushdie’s fatwa several times, with the current Ayatollah affirming that the edict remained in effect in 2017.