Global Courant 2023-05-16 20:46:43
Author Salman Rushdie addressed a public audience this week — about nine months after he was stabbed in an attempted murder.
Rushdie addressed the audience at the British Book Awards on Monday after being presented with the Freedom to Publish Award.
Rushdie took the opportunity to speak about the importance of free speech and said he was increasingly concerned about the future of civil liberties.
“Freedom of speech, freedom to publish has not been so threatened in my lifetime in the countries of the West,” said Rushdie.
AUTHOR SALMAN RUSHDIE PASSED SPEECH IN NEW YORK
Salman Rushdie attends the 68th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
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Rushdie has long been an outspoken advocate of the First Amendment – Rushdie’s book “The Satanic Verses” has been banned in Iran since 1988 because many Muslims consider it blasphemous. A year later, the 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 on August 12, 2022 while performing in New York. (HERBERT NEUBAUER/APA/AFP)
Rushdie warned on Monday that he feared Western countries were also moving towards severe censorship.
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“We live in a time, I think, when freedom of speech and freedom of publishing have not been so threatened in my lifetime in the countries of the West,” said Rushdie.
The author continued, “Sitting here in the US, I have to look at the extraordinary attack on libraries and books for children in schools. to fight.”
A German edition of Salman Rushdie’s book “The Satanic Verses” sits on a shelf in a library. (Photo by Carsten Koall/Photo alliance via Getty Images)
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Rushdie, 75, was attacked in August prior to a lecture in upstate New York and suffered serious stab wounds. He suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye.
The author has been the target of death threats for over three decades for writing “The Satanic Verses.”
Timothy Nerozzi is a writer for Fox News Digital. You can follow him on Twitter @timothynerozzi and email him at timothy.nerozzi@fox.com
