India condemns attack on Salman Rushdie two weeks later

New Delhi, Aug 25 (EFE).- India on Thursday condemned the “terrible attack” against Indian-origin British author Salman Rushdie, who was grievously injured on Aug. 12 after being stabbed in the United States, in its first official response since the incident.

“India has always stood against violence and extremism, we condemn this horrific attack on Salman Rushdie and we wish him a speedy recovery,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in his weekly press briefing.

This was New Delhi’s first official condemnation of the attack, after Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar had on Aug. 13 simply said that “the whole world has noticed and the whole world has reacted” to the attempt on Rushdie’s life.

The author, who remains hospitalized, was about to speak at a literary conference in the US city of Chautauqua, around six hours away from his New York residence, when a man jumped on the stage and stabbed him multiple times, critically wounding the scribe.

The 24-year-old aggressor Hadi Matar was arrested immediately, and later told the New York Post in a prison interview that he had acted against Rushdie due to the author “attacking Islam” in his book “the Satanic Verses.”

Rushdie has faced constant threats to his life over the book since 1989, when the Iranian regime issued a fatwa – a religious edict – against him, forcing him to stay in hiding for years.

The novel, which combines philosophical musings and satirical fiction, has faced the ire of Shia Muslims, many of whom consider it an insult to the Quran, Prophet Mohammad and Islam. The Satanic Verses was banned in India, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arab and South Africa. EFE

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