Salman Rushdie: The Hidden Writer In The United Kingdom
Salman Rushdie: The Hidden Writer In The United Kingdom. The Right to life is considered one of the rights under the UDHR, and every person has the right to live in this world with no fear of death or assassination. A writer and author of many award-winning novels have been hiding inside the walls of his home with the fear of death since 1988. It has been a decade, and still, he is being treated like a criminal and has been the target of homicidal killing. Who Is Salman Rushdie Rushdie is Indian-born and later became a British citizen. He has written almost thirteen novels to date. Rushdie is a renowned novelist with various achievements all around the world, including in India. His first novel was Grimus, which was not very popular among the public, but a few scholars claimed him as an author who has the capability of achieving greatness soon. Salman Rushdie is an author who won the ‘Booker Prize’ for his novel Midnight’s Children, which was widely distributed around the world and of which almost half a million copies were sold.
Salman released a novel in 1988 that changed his life completely. The novel was criticized mostly by a group of people belonging to Islam. It was not only popular among people, but a few countries also prohibited it. His entire life was changed by the novel The Satanic Verses, and he is also known as a “self-proclaimed controversialist.”The first country to ban the novel was India, which was followed by Pakistan and later Africa.
The former Supreme Religious Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, considered the book blasphemous and issued a religious verdict fatwa to execute the death sentence against the author in the international and national domain. Despite the novel’s criticism, few praised his work, and he was awarded the “Whitbread” prize. Juliana Kim, Why Salman Rushdie’s work sparked decades of controversy,
After the novel was published, Muslims protested in the streets because it contained various segments in which Prophet Muhammad was insulted, and the author included verses that were removed from the Islamic holy book Quran. The protest was also held in India’s streets, where people chanted death threats. Almost 12 people were killed in the rioting in Mumbai, and the UK government fined the author $3 million as the embassy was stoned by the protestors. This book turned into an International and National dispute between a religious group of people and a country. The author went into hiding after the controversial remarks of the book it got police protection from the UK government. Impact Of The Book
The impact of the book led to the homicidal killings of distributors and translators too. The book was not only a threat to the author but also to the translators. Hitoshi Igarashi, a Japanese scholar who was murdered at Tasukba University, was the first translator to be viciously attacked and killed. The Japanese scholar had gone to different seminars and praised the work of the author, defended him at every stage, and given an overview of the book. The murder of the scholar remains unsolved, and the CIA and National Security Council have stated that the murder was caused by Iranians, as the fatwa was declared by the late spiritual leader. Not only was there just one homicidal killing, but Norwegian publisher William Nygaard was shot for publishing the book. The distributors and publishers were getting attacked and discharged due to the fatwa that was declared by the Iranian leader.
The author was stabbed several times in the year 2022, just before he was about to give a lecture in New York at Chautauqua Institution. He had suffered several injuries to his body and also lost an eye. The murderer was a 24-year-old boy named Hadi Matar, who stated that he wasn’t guilty and was stabbing the author. It is a decade-old controversy, and it is still going on to this day. The fatwa that was declared by the late Supreme Spiritual leader obliged every person belonging to Iran that the death threat and assassination has not ended
CONCLUSION: The 75-year-old author and prolific novelist were traumatised after being stabbed in New York in an attempted murder by a 24-year-old man. We have seen in recent interviews on channels that he is having immense trouble writing as his hand is injured, including his eye. He is an eminent writer, and we know that freedom of expression is important to every writer.
