Author Salman Rushdie stabbed on stage before a lecture in New York, suspect identified and in custody

Famed author Salman Rushdie, who has endured death threats from extremists for decades, was stabbed Friday before a scheduled lecture in western New York, authorities said.

A man stormed the stage at the Chautauqua Institution, about 70 miles south of Buffalo, about 11 a.m. and attacked the 75-year-old author and interviewer Henry Reese, New York State Police Maj. Eugene J. Staniszewski said.

Rushdie is best known for “The Satanic Verses,” which has been banned in Iran and is considered by some Muslims to be blasphemous.

The suspect was identified by state police as 24-year-old Hadi Matar of Fairview, New Jersey. A preliminary review of his social media shows he had sympathies for Shia extremism and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation said.

The author was stabbed at least once in his neck and abdomen, Staniszewski said. He was "still undergoing surgery" in Erie, Pennsylvania, as the major spoke.

State police were working with counterparts in nearby Pennsylvania to determine Rushdie's condition. A spokesperson for UPMC, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Erie, said by email, "We have no information at this time" and referred inquiries to New York State Police.

Reese, co-founder of a Pittsburgh nonprofit that hosts a residency program for writers living in exile, was treated for injuries to his face and released, the major said.

During the attack, people rushed the stage and quickly neutralized the man, who was taken into custody by a state trooper and a Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office deputy, Staniszewski said.

Video of the attack has already been reviewed by investigators, he said.

The venue had beefed up its law enforcement presence for high-profile events, the major said, explaining why a trooper and a deputy were onstage immediately.

"They requested a law enforcement presence be there," Staniszewski said. "And thankfully, we were."

A doctor who had been in the audience rapidly rendered aid until emergency medical services workers could take over moments later, the major said.

Authorities did not know the man's nationality and were unsure if he had a criminal record, Staniszewski said. The motive for the attack is under investigation, but authorities have already focused on those apparent sympathies with an IRGC, which has been labeled a terrorist organization by the United States.

"We will work with the FBI, the sheriff's office, and we will determine what the cause of this attack was, what the motive was," Staniszewski said.

On Wednesday, a member of the IRGC was charged in a plot to murder former national security adviser John Bolton, allegedly in retaliation for the U.S. killing of Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in January 2020. The suspect, Shahram Poursafi, 45, of Tehran, was at large.

There are no definitive links between Matar and the IRGC, the law enforcement source said. A cellphone messaging app belonging to Matar includes images of Soleimani and an Iraqi extremist sympathetic to the Iranian regime, the official said.

A backpack believed to have been left by the suspect was rendered safe by sheriff's bomb squad members, and state troopers have requested a search warrant to look inside, Staniszewski said.

They also asked a judge to allow them to search electronic devices associated with the suspect, he said.

Possible charges for the suspect would have to wait for word of the author's condition, the major said.

Representatives for Rushdie did not immediately return an NBC News request for comment.

"The first stab was right into the artery"

Rushdie was being introduced when a man approached him, took out a knife and stabbed him in the neck, said witness Julia Mineeva-Braun, who was seated in the fifth row.

Mineeva-Braun, who teaches Russian at State University of New York at Fredonia, said she thought the attacker was a stage hand helping Rushdie with sound.

"From the (audience's) left there's a guy running, dressed up in black, and he came and I was thinking he was fixing Mr. Rushdie's microphone because he was getting to his neck," Mineeva-Braun, 47, said.

"Then and all of a sudden we see the knife and the first stab was right into the artery, into his neck, and then several stabs a little bit lower into the shoulder blade."

As Rushdie tried to flee his attacker and they both fell just feet behind the chairs as audience members flooded the stage to help the writer and pin the assailant, Mineeva-Braun said.

"He didn't say a word, he didn't say anything," Mineeva-Braun said of the attacker.

Rushdie appeared to be conscious and speaking to first responders, according to the witness.

"The Satanic Verses" and the fatwa against Rushdie

Rushdie is one of the most acclaimed novelists in contemporary literature, celebrated for his provocative mix of magical realism and historical allegory.

In books such as "Midnight’s Children" and "The Satanic Verses," Rushdie dazzled readers with his energetic prose style and impressed critics with his thematic ambition.

"Midnight’s Children," published in 1981, earned him the Booker Prize.

"The Satanic Verses," featuring a character based on the Islamic prophet Muhammad, outraged much of the Muslim world when it was published in the late 1980s, inspiring protests and leading Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa, or edict, calling for his death.

The firestorm forced Rushdie into hiding for many years.

Friday's attack happened about 8 p.m. local time in Tehran and was widely reported on Iranian state media.

In those reports, Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses” and the fatwa were prominently mentioned.

But there was no immediate, official statement from Tehran, regarding the attack.

State Sen. George Borrello, who represents the region where Friday's attack happened, recalled purchasing "The Satanic Verses" when it was originally published as a "show of support for Mr. Rushdie and for the basic human right of free speech."

"This shocking attack on a celebrated and noted author, apparently prompted by fundamentalist extremism, has no place in America," Borrello said in a statement. "There is no room, in a free society, for beliefs that demand you kill someone who disagrees with you."

Reactions from the political and literary communities

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the attack shocking and appalling.

"It is an attack on freedom of speech and thought, which are two bedrock values of our country and of the Chautauqua Institution," he said in a statement. "I hope Mr. Rushdie quickly and fully recovers and the perpetrator experiences full accountability and justice."

In a statement, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said: "He is an individual who has spent decades speaking truth to power ... we condemn what happened, we condemn all violence, and we want people to feel that freedom to speak and to write truth."

Nadine Dorries, the United Kingdom's culture secretary, also condemned the attack on the Indian-born British author, calling it, "Horrifying."

"An awful attack on a literary giant and one of the great defenders of freedom of expression," Dorries said.

Rushdie was scheduled to appear Friday alongside Reese, who helped create an organization dedicated to protecting exiled writers and free speech called City of Asylum.

The Chautauqua Institution canceled its Friday programs, and Its president, Michael E. Hill, said the remainder of its Chautauqua Lecture Series would go on as planned throughout the month.

"This has never happened in our entire history," he said during the news conference. "Chautauqua has always been an extremely safe place."

Rushdie in 2012 published “Joseph Anton: A Memoir,” recounting his years since the fatwa was issued.

New York-based Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad called the stabbing "barbaric."

"You can kill us but you cannot kill the idea of writing & fighting for our dignity," she said in a statement. "I condemn the barbaric attack on Salman Rushdie. After surviving a kidnapping and an assassination plot in New York, I won’t feel safe on US soil until the US take strong action against terror."