Stabbing of Rushdie thrusts a tranquil literary retreat into mayhem

By Sharon Bernstein and Andrew Hay

(Reuters) – Earlier than Salman Rushdie arrived on Friday, the bucolic New York retreat the place the writer was because of communicate had organized for a legislation enforcement presence at his lecture, aware that the safety is likely to be wanted for a person who confronted dying threats.

Chautauqua Establishment, a haven within the west of the state the place writers and artists collect every summer time, was not the sort of place the place folks anxious about their security. Members of the viewers stated there have been no bag checks, metallic detectors or different safety to enter the occasion within the gated group.

But simply earlier than 11 a.m., as Rushdie ready to steer a dialogue about inventive freedom, tons of of attendees watched in horror as a 24-year-old New Jersey man rushed to the stage and stabbed Rushdie within the neck and torso. Police stated there was no fast indication of a motive for the assault that left Rushdie severely injured and on a ventilator after surgical procedure.

Rushdie, a defiant critic of faith and of leaders who use faith for political positive aspects, had typically bristled at safety, regardless of figuring out he was prone to assaults from fundamentalists and passionate supporters of these politicians.

He spent years in hiding after Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 issued a fatwa, or non secular edict, calling on Muslims to kill him following the publication of his novel, “The Satanic Verses,” which some Muslims stated contained blasphemous passages.

In a memoir about his time in hiding, Rushdie expressed discomfort on the excessive ranges of safety at U.S. airports in New Jersey and Denver when he arrived to talk. However lately, he had lived extra freely and insisted he shouldn’t be continually surveilled and guarded by safety guards.

Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf, senior director of literary applications on the writers group PEN America, the place Rushdie beforehand served as president, stated that in 4 years of working intently with the writer to placed on festivals and different occasions, he by no means as soon as requested a safety element.

“I am not conscious that he is ever requested us to supply extra safety, and I am additionally not conscious that he ever introduced a safety element with him,” she stated.

Michael Hill, Chautauqua Establishment’s president, informed reporters on Friday that safety was a prime precedence for the group that brings collectively 1000’s of individuals for its 9 weeks of summer time programming.

For Rushdie’s occasion, Chautauqua had requested and acquired safety help from the New York State Police and the Chautauqua County sheriff’s division, Hill stated.

He stated such an assault was unprecedented on the institute, which was based in 1874 and is devoted to fostering civil dialogue on non secular, social and political points.

“Chautauqua has at all times been an especially protected place,” he stated.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul informed reporters Chautauqua was a “tranquil” group the place probably the most preeminent audio system, thought leaders, politicians, justices and others got here collectively to have free expression of thought.

Algerian author and human rights activist Anouar Rahmani, who was slated to talk after Rushdie on Friday, stated he solely needed to present his entry move to get into the occasion and noticed no extra safety screenings.

“I believe we should always have had extra safety round him,” stated Rahmani, who confronted threats of his personal after he publicly demanded that same-sex marriage be legalized in Algeria.

Bradley Fisher, 68, a retired promoting author who was within the viewers and witnessed the assault, stated safety was the identical as in earlier years.

Attendees bought a move to enter by means of the principle gates after which had their passes scanned to get into the amphitheater, with no bag checks or metallic detectors alongside the best way.

Fisher stated security, range and variations of opinion had lengthy been a part of the material of the Chautauqua group.

“Not solely was he (Rushdie) a sufferer, however I believe that open group goes to be a sufferer as properly,” Fisher stated.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California, and Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Further reporting by Daniel Trotta, Kanishka Singh, Tyler Clifford; Modifying by Colleen Jenkins and Daniel Wallis)