Author Salman Rushdie, in a public speech, warned that freedom of expression in the West is currently in its most severe threat in his lifetime as he spoke nearly nine months after being stabbed onstage in New York. The writer was stabbed multiple times while he was preparing to deliver a lecture on a stage at the Chautauqua Institution in New York last year in August which resulted in his right eye being blinded and nerve damage to his hand.
As Salman Rushdie received the Freedom to Publish award at the British Book Awards which "acknowledges the determination of authors, publishers and booksellers who take a stand against intolerance, despite the ongoing threats they face."
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“We live in a moment, I think, at which freedom of expression, freedom to publish has not in my lifetime been under such threat in the countries of the West,” he said, adding, “Now I am sitting here in the US, I have to look at the extraordinary attack on libraries, and books for children in schools. The attack on the idea of libraries themselves. It is quite remarkably alarming, and we need to be very aware of it, and to fight against it very hard.”
Salman Rushdie has spent years hiding following death threats from Iran over his 1988 infamous novel “The Satanic Verses”- which was banned in many countries.
{{/usCountry}}Salman Rushdie has spent years hiding following death threats from Iran over his 1988 infamous novel “The Satanic Verses”- which was banned in many countries.
{{/usCountry}}Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then supreme leader of Iran, pronounced a fatwa, calling upon Muslims to kill the novelist in 1989. The author has received the Booker Prize for his novel "Midnight's Children". His most recent work, “Victory City” was released in February.