Salman Rushdie spent years under police protection after Iranian leaders called for his killing.
New York:
The man who was due to interview Salman Rushdie in New York state at the time before the famous novelist was attacked said Sunday he initially thought someone was playing a cruel joke, but was I was really startled when I saw the blood.
Henry Reese, president of the nonprofit group City of Asylum, was also injured when an attacker entered the stage of the literary event Friday and stabbed Rushdie in the neck and stomach; he said it took a few minutes to grasp what was going on.
Reese, 73, told CNN: “It’s very confusing.
“Then when there’s blood behind him, it comes true.”
Reese, who appeared online Sunday with a large bandage over his bruised and swollen right eye, declined to discuss the specifics of the attack.
But he said that when a man ran on stage, he thought the incident was a “bad reference” to the religious decree Iran’s leaders had issued calling on Muslims to kill Rushdie, and “it’s not a real attack.”
The suspected attacker, Hadi Matar, 24, was wrestled to the ground by staff and other spectators before being taken into police custody.
Rushdie spent years under police protection after Iranian leaders called for his death for his depiction of Islam and the Prophet Mohammed in his novel “Verses of Satan”. “.
Reese said he planned to discuss with Rushdie about the City of Asylum movement, which protects free speech, and Reese said he launched it after hearing Rushdie’s inspirational speech in 1997.
“It’s a kind of grim irony – or maybe intention – that not only attacks his body, but also attacks everything he stands for,” Reese said.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
