Salman Rushdie attacker sentenced to 25 years in prison

Salman Rushdie- Knife : Meditations after an Attempted Murder.

The Satanic Verses controversy, also known as the Rushdie Affair, was a controversy sparked by the 1988 publication of Indian author, Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses. It centered on the novel's references to the Satanic Verses (apocryphal verses of the Quran), and came to include a larger debate about censorship and religious violence.¹ In Islamic communities, the novel became instantly controversial, because of what some Muslims considered blasphemous references. Rushdie was accused of misusing freedom of speech.

On 14 February 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran and one of the most prominent Shi'a Muslim leaders, issued a fatwa calling for the death of Rushdie and his publishers. This created a major international incident that persisted for many years.

Salmon Rushdie Attack -2022

Hadi Matar, 27, who stabbed and partially blinded novelist Sir Salman Rushdie on a New York lecture stage was sentenced to 25 years in prison on May 16, 2025.

Sir Salman was on stage speaking before an audience in August 2022, when he was stabbed multiple times in the face and neck. The attack left him blind in one eye, damage to his liver and a paralysed hand caused by nerve damage to his arm.

The attack came 35 years after Sir Salman's controversial novel The Satanic Verses, which had long made him the target of death threats for its portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad. ²

Knife : Meditations after an Attempted Murder.

Salman Rushdie’s memoir Knife : Meditations after an Attempted Murder was published in 2024.³

1. Satanic Verses Controversy. Wikipedia

2. Salman Rushdie attacker sentenced to 25 years in prison. BBC. May 16, 2025.

3. Rushdie, Salman. 2024. Knife : Meditations after an Attempted Murder. First U.S. edition. New York: Random House.