Salman Rushdie A life of writing through the threat of religious extremists and a life in hiding – News18 Malayalam

Salman Rushdie is a novelist who is facing strong criticism and threats from the Muslim community for his novel ‘The Satanic Verses’. Known as the master of magic realism, Salman Rushdie faced death threats from various quarters for many years and remained in hiding. The 75-year-old British author was stabbed by an assailant at a lecture in western New York on Friday. It is reported that his health condition is serious.

Rushdie’s life changed with the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses in 1988. In this novel, Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini issued a fatwa to kill Rushdie for blasphemy. After this he was hiding in Britain.

Known for his depiction of post-independence India in his 1981 Booker Prize-winning novel Midnight’s Children, Rushdie faced opposition and death threats for his novel The Satanic Verses. A section of Muslims accuse that this novel insults Prophet Muhammad.

Also read: What is Fatwa? What is behind the attack on Salman Rushdie?

Violent protests against Rushdie erupted around the world. There was even a riot in his birthplace Mumbai that left 12 people dead. Apart from this, the novel was also banned in Iran.

At the same time, Iran has announced that it will pay a reward of more than 3 million dollars for those who kill Rushdie. In 2016, the reward for his assassination was raised, according to The Index, a censorship organization.

see also: Salman Rushdie’s condition critical after being stabbed; The sight of one eye may be lost; Liver injury

Rushdie was given police protection following the murder of the translators and publishers of his novels. Meanwhile, Iran distanced itself from the 1998 Khomeini edict. Iran had taken the position that it would not support or oppose Rushdie’s murder. But threats and boycotts against events he attended continued. Although Rushdie was born into a Muslim family, he was an atheist.

After he was knighted by Britain in 2007, strong protests erupted again in Iran and Pakistan. While in hiding
He also published a biography titled ‘Joseph Anton: A Memoir’.

But it was one of his early compositions, ‘Midnight’s Children’, that brought him greater fame. The 600-plus-page novel Midnight’s Children has been translated into more than 40 languages, staged, and made into a movie.

Rushdie came before the people not only as a novelist. He has also acted in the movie Bridget Jones’s Diary. Rushdie also appeared in the US television show Seinfeld.

At the same time, it was after nine long years that he came back to the public arena. Rushdie currently resides in New York. His novel “Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights”, published in 2015, is set in New York.

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