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Iranian news outlets celebrated the stabbing of author Salman Rushdie as the hospitalized writer fights for his life.
Rushdie, who was stabbed in the neck, is unable to speak and on a ventilator. The man accused of attacking Rushdie has been charged with attempted murder in the second degree along with second degree assault, prosecutors said Saturday.
While there has been no official response from the Iranian government, media outlets in the country rejoiced at the attempted assassination.
Novelist Salman Rushdie speaks onstage during a discussion of the book “Quichotte” at Free Library of Philadelphia Dec. 10, 2019, in Philadelphia.
(Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images)
Iran’s Kayhan newspaper, overseen by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, published praise for the attack, writing, “A thousand bravos … to the brave and dutiful person who attacked the apostate and evil Salman Rushdie in New York,” according to translations from Reuters.
REPORTERS BANNED FROM SALMAN RUSHDIE ATTACKER ARRAIGNMENT
The outlet added, “The hand of the man who tore the neck of God’s enemy must be kissed.”
The Vatan-e-Emrooz newspaper published the headline “Knife in Salman Rushdie’s neck” while Khorasan Daily ran with a lede stating “Satan on the way to hell,” according to Reuters.
A man shows today’s edition of the Iranian newspaper Vatan-e Emrooz with a front page headline in Farsi — “Knife in the neck of Salman Rushdie” — in the capital Tehran Aug. 13, 2022.
(Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
Hadi Matar, 24, was being held in the upstate New York Chautauqua County Jail after he was transferred from the New York State Police barracks in Jamestown following the alleged Friday attack.
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“The news is not good,” an agent for Rushdie, Andrew Wylie, said Friday. “Salman will likely lose one eye, the nerves in his arm were severed and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”
Rushdie has been under threat of attack for decades following publication of the 1989 book “The Satanic Verses,” which reportedly examined Islam through a critical lens and landed him a fatwa-ordered call for death from Ruhollah Khomeini, the former and first supreme leader of Iran.
Fox News’ Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.
