Writer Salman Rushdie addressed a public audience this week, nearly nine months after he was stabbed in an assassination attempt.
Rushdie addressed an audience at the British Book Awards on Monday after winning the Freedom of Press Award.
Rushdie took the opportunity to speak about the importance of freedom of expression and said he was increasingly concerned about the future of civil liberties.
“Never in my life have freedom of expression and freedom of the press been so threatened in the West,” said Rushdie.
Writer Salman Rushdie stabbed before giving New York speech
Salman Rushdie attends the 68th Annual National Book Awards and Benefit Dinner in New York. (Photo Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
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Rushdie has been a vocal supporter of the First Amendment for many years, and his book The Satanic Verse has been banned in Iran since 1988 because many Muslims consider it blasphemy. It’s becoming 1 year later, late leader of iran Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death.
Author Salman Rushdie was stabbed and seriously injured during an appearance in New York on August 12, 2022. (Herbert Neubauer/APA/AFP)
Rushdie warned on Monday that he fears the West is also moving in the direction of full-blown censorship.
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“I think we live in a time when freedom of expression, freedom of the press is less threatened in the West,” said Rushdie.
The author continues, “Right now, as I sit here in the United States, I have to see an extraordinary attack on libraries and children’s books in schools. Attacks on the concept of the library itself. This is extremely alarming. That’s what we need,” he said. We need to be aware of it and fight it hard. ”
The German edition of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses is on the library shelf. (Photo credit: Carsten Koall/picture Alliance via Getty Images)
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Rushdie, 75, was attacked in August Severely stabbed before giving a speech in upstate New York. He damaged his liver and had the nerves in his arms and eyes severed.
The author has been the target of death threats for over 30 years for writing “satanic poetry.”
Timothy Nerozzi is a writer for Fox News Digital. You can follow him on Twitter @timothynerozzi or email him at [email protected].