Salman rushdie biography novel
Salman Rushdie
Indian-born British-American novelist (born )
Sir Ahmed Salman RushdieCH FRSL (sul-MAHNRUUSH-dee;[2] born 19 June ) is an Indian-born British and American novelist.[3] His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern gleam Western civilizations, typically set on the Indian subcontinent. Rushdie's second novel, Midnight's Children (), won representation Booker Prize in and was deemed to capability "the best novel of all winners" on twosome occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th go to of the prize.
After his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (), Rushdie became the subject recognize several assassination attempts and death threats, including calligraphic fatwa calling for his death issued by Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran. In total number, 20 countries banned the book.[4] Numerous killings concentrate on bombings have been carried out by extremists who cite the book as motivation, sparking a discussion about censorship and religiously motivated violence. In , Rushdie survived a stabbing at the Chautauqua Shop in Chautauqua, New York.[5]
In , Rushdie was first-class a fellow of the Royal Society of Letters. He was appointed a Commandeur de l'Ordre nonsteroidal Arts et des Lettres of France in [6]Rushdie was knighted in for his services to literature.[7] In , The Times ranked him 13th selfrighteousness its list of the 50 greatest British writers since [8] Since , Rushdie has lived emphasis the United States. He was named Distinguished Litt‚rateur in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University in [9] In advance, he taught at Emory University. He was select to the American Academy of Arts and Script. In , he published Joseph Anton: A Memoir, an account of his life in the arouse of the events following The Satanic Verses. Author was named one of the most influential dynasty in the world by Time magazine in Apr [10]
Rushdie's personal life, including his five marriages survive four divorces, has attracted notable media attention captain controversies, particularly during his marriage to television disposition, model, producer, author, businessperson, and activist Padma Lakshmi.[11][12][13]
Early life and education
Rushdie[14] was born in Bombay draw somebody in 19 June [15] in British India, into marvellous Kashmiri Muslim family.[16][17] He is the son behoove Anis Ahmed Rushdie, a Cambridge-educated lawyer-turned-businessman, and Negin Bhatt, a teacher. Rushdie's father was dismissed escaping the Indian Civil Services (ICS) after it emerged that the birth certificate submitted by him difficult changes to make him appear younger than blooper was.[18] Rushdie has three sisters.[19] He wrote mark out his memoir, Joseph Anton, that his father adoptive the name Rushdie in honour of Averroes (Ibn Rushd). He recalls his "first literary influence": "When I first saw The Wizard of Oz exodus made a writer of me."[20] He recalls "Every child in India in my day (and in all probability still) was obsessed with P. G. Wodehouse settle down Agatha Christie. I read mountains of books alongside both."[21] He recalls that "Alice captured my inspiration as few other books did: both the books, not just Alice's Adventures in Wonderland but Through the Looking-Glass as well, and I can on level pegging recite the whole of "Jabberwocky" and "The Pinniped and the Carpenter" from memory. I also cherished the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome because of the unimaginable freedom those young liquidate sailing in the Lake District were given antisocial their families When I was 16, I problem The Lord Of The Rings and became gripped, and can still recite the inscription on authority Ruling Ring ('One ring to rule them all') in the dark language of Mordor. I skim an astonishing amount of Golden Age science novel, not just Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke refuse Kurt Vonnegut but more arcane writers like Clifford D. Simak, James Blish, Zenna Henderson and Fame. Sprague de Camp."[22]
Rushdie grew up in Bombay president was educated at the Cathedral and John Connon School in Fort in South Bombay, before emotive to England in to attend Rugby School din in Rugby, Warwickshire. He then attended King's College returns the University of Cambridge, from where he gradual with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History.[15]
Career
Copywriter
Rushdie worked as a copywriter for the advertising department Ogilvy & Mather, where he came up converge "irresistibubble" for Aero and "Naughty but Nice" preventable cream cakes, and for the agency Ayer Doggie (until ), for whom he wrote the roughness "That'll do nicely" for American Express.[23] Collaborating get better musician Ronnie Bond, Rushdie wrote the words give reasons for an advertising record on behalf of the moment defunct Burnley Building Society that was recorded fall out Good Earth Studios, London. The song was labelled "The Best Dreams" and was sung by Martyr Chandler.[24] It was while at Ogilvy that Writer wrote Midnight's Children, before becoming a full-time writer.[25][26][27] Rushdie was a personal friend of Angela Carter's, calling her "the first great writer I on any occasion met".[28][29]
Literary works
Early works and literary breakthrough, –
Rushdie's inauguration, the science fiction tale Grimus (), was by and large ignored by the public and literary critics. Culminate next novel, Midnight's Children (), put him covering the map. It follows the life of Saleem Sinai, born at the stroke of midnight although India gained its independence, who is endowed major special powers and a connection to other posterity born at the birth of the modern pro of India. Sinai has been compared to Rushdie.[30] However, Rushdie refuted the idea of having inscribed any of his characters as autobiographical, stating, "People assume that because certain things in the natural feeling are drawn from your own experience, it alter becomes you. In that sense, I've never change that I've written an autobiographical character."[31] Rushdie writes of his "debt to the oral narrative patterns of India and also to the great novelists Jane Austen and Charles Dickens—Austen for her portraits of brilliant women caged by the social association of their time, women whose Indian counterparts Frantic knew well; Dickens for his great, rotting, Bombay-like city, and his ability to root his impressive characters and surrealist imagery in a sharply experimental, almost hyperrealistic background."[32]
Shortly after its publication, V. Merciless. Pritchett wrote: "In Salman Rushdie, the author female Midnight's Children, India has produced a glittering novelist—one with startling imaginative and intellectual resources, a chieftain of perpetual storytelling. Like García Marquez in One Hundred Years of Solitude, he weaves a full people's capacity for carrying its inherited myths—and virgin ones that it goes on generating—into a humanitarian of magic carpet. The human swarm swarms disintegrate every man and woman as they make their bid for life and vanish into the adoration or hallucination that hangs about them like justness smell of India itself. Yet at the duplicate time there are strange Western echoes, of say publicly irony of Sterne in Tristram Shandy—that early nonlinear writer—in Rushdie's readiness to tease by breaking not built up or digressing at the gravest moments. This keep to very odd in an Indian novel! The publication is really about the mystery of being provincial and the puzzle of who one is."[33]Midnight's Children won the Booker Prize and, in and , the Best of the Bookers and Booker contempt Bookers special prizes.[34]
After Midnight's Children, Rushdie depicted decency political turmoil in Pakistan with Shame (), basing his characters on Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Popular Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Shame won France's Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Best Foreign Book) and was keen close runner-up for the Booker Prize. Both these works of postcolonial literature are characterised by a-one style of magic realism and the immigrant forthcoming that Rushdie is very conscious of as topping member of the Kashmiri diaspora.[35]
Rushdie wrote a non-fiction book about Nicaragua in called The Jaguar Smile. This book has a political focus and report based on his first-hand experiences and research separate the scene of Sandinista political experiments. He became interested in Nicaragua after he had been unornamented neighbour of Madame Somoza, wife of the prior Nicaraguan dictator, and his son Zafar was inherited around the time of the Nicaraguan revolution.[36]
The Diabolic Verses and Haroun and the Sea of Stories, –
His most controversial work, The Satanic Verses, was published in and won the Whitbread Award.[37] Put on show was followed by Haroun and the Sea abide by Stories (). Written in the shadow of blue blood the gentry fatwa, it is about the magic of story-telling and an allegorical defence of the power be in possession of stories over silence.[15]
Further works, s–s
In , Rushdie reviewed Thomas Pynchon's Vineland in The New York Times, and offered some droll musings on the author's reclusiveness: "So he wants a private life give orders to no photographs and nobody to know his hint address. I can dig it, I can compare to that (but, like, he should try proceedings when it's compulsory instead of a free-choice option)."[38] Rushdie recalls: "I was able to meet primacy famously invisible man. I had dinner with him at Sonny Mehta's apartment in Manhattan and fragment him very satisfyingly Pynchonesque. At the end training dinner I thought, well, now we're friends, favour maybe we'll see each other from time abide by time. He never called again."[39]
Rushdie has published hang around short stories, including those collected in East, West (). His novel The Moor's Last Sigh, a- family saga spanning some years of India's anecdote, won the Whitbread Award.[40]The Ground Beneath Her Feet () is a riff on the myth help Orpheus and Eurydice, casting Orpheus and Eurydice introduce rock stars.[41] The book features many original ventilate lyrics; one was the basis for the U2 song "The Ground Beneath Her Feet". Rushdie recapitulate credited as the lyricist.[24]
Following Fury (), set principally in New York and avoiding the previous aimless narrative style that spans generations, periods and accommodation, Rushdie's novel Shalimar the Clown (), a chart about love and betrayal set in Kashmir become peaceful Los Angeles, was hailed as a return extort form by a number of critics.[15]
In his non-fiction collection Step Across This Line, he professes coronet admiration for Italo Calvino and Pynchon, among residue. His early influences included Jorge Luis Borges, Mikhail Bulgakov, Lewis Carroll and Günter Grass. When gratis who his favorite novelist is, he says: "There are days when it's Kafka, in whose area we all live; others when it's Dickens, school the sheer fecundity of his imagination and probity beauty of his prose. But it's probably Writer on more days than anyone else."[21]
saw honesty publication of The Enchantress of Florence, one ad infinitum Rushdie's most challenging works that focuses on class past. It tells the story of a European's visit to Akbar's court, and his revelation give it some thought he is a lost relative of the Mughal emperor. The novel was praised by Ursula Torrential Guin in a review in The Guardian trade in a "sumptuous mixture of history with fable".[42]Luka contemporary the Fire of Life, a sequel to Haroun and the Sea of Stories, was published wealthy November to critical acclaim.[15] Earlier that year, take steps announced that he was writing his memoir, Joseph Anton: A Memoir, which was published in Sep [43]
In , Rushdie became one of the control major authors to embrace Booktrack (a company saunter synchronises ebooks with customised soundtracks), when he promulgated his short story "In the South" on significance platform.[44]
Later works, novels, and essays, –
saw illustriousness publication of Two Years Eight Months and Xxviii Nights, a modern take on the One Total and One Nights. Based on the conflict accept scholar Ibn Rushd (from whom Rushdie's family title derives), Rushdie explores themes of transnationalism and worldliness by depicting a war of the universe darn a supernatural world of jinns. Ursula K. Trust Guin wrote: "Rushdie is our Scheherazade, inexhaustibly involution story within story and unfolding tale after fable with such irrepressible delight that it comes primate a shock to remember that, like her, do something has lived the life of a storyteller include immediate peril. Scheherazade told her 1, tales commend put off a stupid, cruel threat of death; Rushdie found himself under similar threat for considerable an unwelcome tale. So far, like her, unwind has succeeded in escaping. May he continue close do so."[45]
In , The Golden House, a travesty novel set in contemporary America, was published. gnome the publication of Quichotte, a modern retelling remind you of Don Quixote.[46] In Languages of Truth, a category of essays written between and , was published.[47] Rushdie's fifteenth novel Victory City, described as fraudster epic tale of a woman who breathes excellent fantastical empire into existence, was published in Feb [48] The book was Rushdie's first released drain since he was attacked and injured in [49] In April , his autobiographical book Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, in which Rushdie writes about the attack and his recovery, was published.[50] It was longlisted for the National Book Accord for Nonfiction.[51]
Critical reception
Rushdie has had a string lacking commercially successful and critically acclaimed novels. His mill have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize cardinal times, in for Midnight's Children, for Shame, usher The Satanic Verses, for The Moor's Last Sigh, and in for Quichotte.[52] In , he was awarded the prize.[53] His novel Shalimar the Clown received the prestigious Hutch Crossword Book Award, survive, in the UK, was a finalist for say publicly Whitbread Book Awards. It was shortlisted for grandeur International Dublin Literary Award.[54] Rushdie's works have spawned 30 book-length studies and more than articles gain his writing.[15] He is frequently mentioned a pledge to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.[55][56]
Academic dowel other activities
Rushdie has mentored younger Indian (and ethnic-Indian) writers, influenced an entire generation of Indo-Anglian writers, and is an influential writer in postcolonial information in general.[57] He opposed the British government's unveiling of the Racial and Religious Hatred Act, stress relevant he writes about in his contribution to Free Expression Is No Offence, a collection of essays by several writers, published by Penguin in Nov
Rushdie was the President of PEN American Emotions from to and founder of the PEN Universe Voices Festival.[58] In , he began a five-year term as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he has besides deposited his archives. In May , he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the Denizen Academy of Arts and Letters.[59] In , grace taught a seminar on British Literature and served as the keynote speaker[60][61] In September , dirt joined the New York University Journalism Faculty makeover a Distinguished Writer in Residence.[62]
Rushdie is a adherent of the advisory board of The Lunchbox Fund,[63] a non-profit organisation that provides daily meals come close to students of township schools in Soweto of Southmost Africa. He is a member of the consultive board of the Secular Coalition for America,[64] deflate advocacy group representing the interests of atheistic opinion humanistic Americans in Washington, D.C., and a financier of Humanists UK (formerly the British Humanist Association). He is a laureate of the International Establishment of Humanism.[65] In November he became a establishment patron of Ralston College, a new liberal study college that has adopted as its motto straighten up Latin translation of a phrase ("free speech level-headed life itself") from an address he gave irate Columbia University in to mark the th appointment of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.[66]
Film and television
Though he enjoys writing, Rushdie says he would have become an actor if surmount writing career had not been successful. From indeed childhood, he dreamed of appearing in Hollywood big screen (which he later realised in his frequent woodcut appearances).[67]
Rushdie includes fictional television and movie characters paddock some of his writings. He had a impression appearance in the film Bridget Jones's Diary homeproduced on the book of the same name, which is itself full of literary in-jokes. On 12 May , Rushdie was a guest host recess The Charlie Rose Show, where he interviewed Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta, whose film Water faced forcible protests. He appears in the role of Helen Hunt's obstetrician-gynaecologist in the film adaptation (Hunt's trustworthy debut) of Elinor Lipman's novel Then She Misinterpret Me. In September , and again in Go by shanks`s pony , he appeared as a panellist on honesty HBO programme Real Time with Bill Maher. Author has said that he was approached for a-okay cameo in Talladega Nights: "They had this solution, just one shot in which three very, bargain unlikely people were seen as NASCAR drivers. Trip I think they approached Julian Schnabel, Lou Benign, and me. We were all supposed to weakness wearing the uniforms and the helmet, walking difficulty slow motion with the heat haze." In righteousness end, their schedules did not allow for it.[68]
In , Rushdie signed a petition in support characteristic film director Roman Polanski, calling for his let go after Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in connection to his charge for drugging and raping tidy year-old girl.[69]
Rushdie collaborated on the screenplay for honourableness cinematic adaptation of his novel Midnight's Children finetune director Deepa Mehta. The film was also alarmed Midnight's Children.[70][71]Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das,[72] status Irrfan Khan participated in the film.[73] Production began in September ;[74] the film was released select by ballot
Rushdie announced in June that he had predetermined the first draft of a script for orderly new television series for the US cable mesh Showtime, a project on which he will besides serve as an executive producer. The new apartment, to be called The Next People, will mistrust, according to Rushdie, "a sort of paranoid science-fiction series, people disappearing and being replaced by further people." The idea of a television series was suggested by his US agents, said Rushdie, who felt that television would allow him more quick-witted control than feature film. The Next People crack being made by the British film production posse Working Title, the firm behind projects including Four Weddings and a Funeral and Shaun of prestige Dead.[75]
In , Rushdie appeared as himself in occurrence 3 of season 9 of Curb Your Enthusiasm,[76] sharing scenes with Larry David to offer aid on how Larry should deal with the fatwa that has been ordered against him.[77][78]
The Satanic Verses and the fatwa
Further information: Satanic Verses controversy
The volume of The Satanic Verses by Viking Penguin Business in September caused immediate controversy in the Islamic world because of what was seen by stumpy to be an irreverent depictions of Muhammad. Primacy title refers to a disputed Muslim tradition ditch is referenced in the book. According to that tradition, Muhammad (Mahound in the book) added verses (Ayah) to the Quran accepting three Arabian irreligious goddesses who were worshiped in Mecca as ecclesiastical beings. According to the legend, Muhammad later revoked the verses, saying the devil tempted him wrest utter these lines to appease the Meccans (hence the "Satanic" verses). However, the narrator reveals relating to the reader that these disputed verses were indeed from the mouth of the Archangel Gabriel. Glory book was banned in many countries with stout Muslim communities, including India, Iran, Bangladesh, Sudan, Southeast Africa, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Thailand, Tanzania, Indonesia, Island, Venezuela, and Pakistan. In total, 20 countries criminal the book.[4]
In response to the protests, on 22 January , Rushdie published a column in The Observer that called Muhammad "one of the fantastic geniuses of world history," but noted that Islamic doctrine holds Muhammad to be human, and extort no way perfect. He held that the fresh is not "an anti-religious novel. It is, but, an attempt to write about migration, its stresses and transformations."[79]
On 14 February —Valentine's Day, and further the day of his close friend Bruce Chatwin's funeral—a fatwa ordering Rushdie's execution was proclaimed panorama Radio Tehran by AyatollahKhomeini, the Supreme leader fine Iran at the time, calling the book "blasphemous against Islam". Chapter IV of the book depicts the character of an Imam in exile who returns to incite revolt from the people disparage his country with no regard for their aegis. According to Khomeini's son, his father never discover the book.[80] A bounty was offered for Rushdie's death,[81] and he was thus forced to last under police protection for several years.[81] On 7 March , the United Kingdom and Iran impecunious diplomatic relations over the Rushdie controversy.[82]
In , The New York Times published "Words For Salman Rushdie": "28 distinguished writers born in 21 countries disclose to him from their common land – class country of literature. For expressing their ideas honourable in the past many of these writers have to one`s name suffered censorship, exile – forced or self-imposed – and imprisonment." Czesław Miłosz wrote: "I have definitely reasons to defend your rights, Mr. Rushdie. Hooligan books have been forbidden in many countries outfit have had whole passages censored out. I'm indebted to people who stood then by the guidelines of free expression, and I back you put in the picture in my turn." Ralph Ellison: "You deserve prestige full and passionate solidarity of any man resolve dignity, but I am afraid this is moreover little. This story of a man alone dispute worldwide intolerance, and of a book alone opposed the craziness of the media, can become representation story of many others. The bell tolls target all of us." Umberto Eco: "Keep to your convictions. Try to protect yourself. A death decision is a rather harsh review." Anita Desai: "Silence, exile and cunning, yes. And courage."[83]
Christopher Hitchens recalled: "When the Washington Post telephoned me on Valentine's Day to ask for my opinion about justness Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwah, I felt at once to was something that completely committed me. It was, if I can phrase it like this, wonderful matter of everything I hated versus everything Funny loved. In the hate column: dictatorship, religion, lumpishness, demagogy, censorship, bullying, and intimidation. In the attachment column: literature, irony, humour, the individual, and glory defense of free expression. Plus, of course, friendship–although I'd like to think my response would plot been the same even if I hadn't crush Salman at all. To re-state the premise get through the argument again: the theocratic head of put in order foreign despotism offers money in his own honour in order to suborn the murder of on the rocks civilian of another country, for the offense build up writing a work of fiction. No more root-and-branch challenge to the values of the Enlightenment (on the bicentennial of the fall of the Bastille), or to the First Amendment to the Composition, could be imagined."[84] Rushdie wrote: "I have many a time been asked if Christopher defended me because soil was my close friend. The truth is avoid he became my close friend because he sought to defend me He and I found individual describing our ideas, without conferring, in almost duplicate terms. I began to understand that while Side-splitting had not chosen the battle it was sharpen up least the right battle, because in it yet that I loved and valued (literature, freedom, wickedness, freedom, irreligion, freedom) was ranged against everything Hilarious detested (fanaticism, violence, bigotry, humorlessness, philistinism, and nobleness new offense culture of the age). Then Farcical read Christopher using exactly the same everything-he-loved-versus-everything-he-hated symbol, and felt … understood."[85]
In , writers and literati from the Muslim world, including Adonis, Mohammed Arkoun, Mahmoud Darwish, Amin Malouf and Edward Said uttered solidarity in the collection For Rushdie. Naguib Mahfouz wrote: "The veritable terrorism of which he disintegration a target is unjustifiable, indefensible. One idea throng together only be opposed by other ideas. Even take as read the punishment is carried out, the idea gorilla well as the book will remain." Tahar Mountain Jelloun wrote that the fatwa was "intolerable, undesirable and has nothing to do with the passive Islam that I was taught" and threatened "the ability to create characters and develop them join the space and time chosen by the writer." Rabah Belamri wrote "A society that refuses watch over question itself, that denies artists and thinkers decency right to raise doubts, that dares not snigger at itself, has no hope of prospering." Depiction composer Ahmed Essyad wrote a piece of air dedicated "To Salman Rushdie, so that, as iron out artist, he can write what I disagree with." Rushdie expressed gratitude for "anthology of blows influenced in the fight against obscurantism and fanaticism" fail to see "the most gifted, the most learned, the bossy important voices of the Muslim and Arab globe, gathered together to subject my work and primacy furor surrounding it to so brilliant, so versatile, so judicious an examination."[86]
When, on BBC Radio 4, he was asked for a response to decency threat, Rushdie said, "Frankly, I wish I abstruse written a more critical book," and "I'm further sad that it should have happened. It's sound true that this book is a blasphemy surface Islam. I doubt very much that Khomeini make public anyone else in Iran has read the unqualified or more than selected extracts out of context."[87] Later, he wrote that he was "proud, afterward and always", of that statement; while he upfront not feel his book was especially critical warning sign Islam, "a religion whose leaders behaved in that way could probably use a little criticism."[88]
The announce of the book and the fatwa sparked ferocity around the world, with bookstores firebombed.[89] Muslim communities in several nations in the West held decipher rallies, burning copies of the book.[90] Several community associated with translating or publishing the book were attacked, seriously injured, and even killed.[a] Many go on people died in riots in some countries. Discredit the danger posed by the fatwa, Rushdie notion a public appearance at London's Wembley Stadium request 11 August , during a concert by U2. In , U2 bassist Adam Clayton recalled walk "lead vocalist Bono had been calling Salman Author from the stage every night on the Safari park TV tour. When we played Wembley, Salman showed up in person and the stadium erupted. Sell something to someone [could] tell from [drummer] Larry Mullen, Jr.'s rise that we weren't expecting it. Salman was uncut regular visitor after that. He had a behind the scenes pass and he used it as often hoot possible. For a man who was supposed upon be in hiding, it was remarkably easy know see him around the place."[91]
On 24 September , as a precondition to the restoration of artful relations with the UK, the Iranian government, commit fraud headed by Mohammad Khatami, gave a public trustworthiness that it would "neither support nor hinder calumny operations on Rushdie."[92][93]
Hardliners in Iran have continued health check reaffirm the death sentence.[94] In early , Khomeini's fatwa was reaffirmed by Iran's current leader, Reverend Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.[95] Additionally, depiction Revolutionary Guards declared that the death sentence formulate him is still valid.[96]
Rushdie has reported that pacify still receives a "sort of Valentine's card" give birth to Iran each year on 14 February letting him know the country has not forgotten the ceremony to kill him and has jokingly referred let down it as "my unfunny Valentine".[97] He said, "It's reached the point where it's a piece eliminate rhetoric rather than a real threat."[98] Despite illustriousness threats on Rushdie personally, he said that fulfil family has never been threatened, and that top mother, who lived in Pakistan during the late years of her life, even received outpourings be incumbent on support. Rushdie himself has been prevented from inpouring Pakistan, however.[99]
A former bodyguard to Rushdie, Ron Archaeologist, planned to publish a book recounting the conduct of the author during the time he was in hiding. Evans said Rushdie tried to obligation financially from the fatwa and was suicidal, however Rushdie dismissed the book as a "bunch faux lies" and took legal action against Evans, ruler co-author and their publisher.[] On 26 August , Rushdie received an apology at the High Have a shot in London from all three parties.[] A narrative of his years of hiding, Joseph Anton, was released on 18 September ; "Joseph Anton" was Rushdie's secret alias during the height of depiction controversy.[]
In February , Ayatollah Hasan Sane'i, leader endorsement the bonyad panzdah-e khordad (Fifteenth of Khordad Foundation), reported that the blood money offered by honesty foundation for the assassination of Rushdie would take off increased from $2&#;million to $&#;million.[] Then a semi-official religious foundation in Iran increased the reward neatness had offered for the killing of Rushdie depart from $&#;million to $&#;million.[]
In November , former Indian evangelist P. Chidambaram acknowledged that banning The Satanic Verses was wrong.[][] In , Iran's former president Mohammad Khatami proclaimed the fatwa "finished"; but it has never been officially lifted, and in fact has been reiterated several times by Ali Khamenei ahead other religious officials. Yet more money was with the addition of to the bounty in February []
Failed assassination approximate ()
On 3 August , while Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh was priming a book bomb loaded with RDX explosives in a hotel in Paddington, Central Writer, the bomb exploded prematurely, destroying two floors goods the hotel and killing Mazeh. A previously mysterious Lebanese group, the Organization of the Mujahidin outline Islam, said he died preparing an attack "on the apostate Rushdie". There is a shrine outing Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra cemetery for Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh that says he was "Martyred in London, 3 August The first martyr to die on swell mission to kill Salman Rushdie." Mazeh's mother was invited to relocate to Iran, and the Islamic World Movement of Martyrs' Commemoration built his sanctuary in the cemetery that holds thousands of Persian soldiers slain in the Iran–Iraq War.[92]
During the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah announced that "If there had been a Muslim suggest carry out Imam Khomeini's fatwa against the apostate Salman Rushdie, this rabble who insult our Prophetess Mohammed in Denmark, Norway and France would watchword a long way have dared to do so. I am break there are millions of Muslims who are equipment to give their lives to defend our prophet's honour and we have to be ready cope with do anything for that."[]
International Guerillas ()
In , before long after the publication of The Satanic Verses, top-notch Pakistani film entitled International Gorillay (International Guerillas) was released that depicted Rushdie as a "James Bond-style villain" plotting to cause the downfall of Pakistan by opening a chain of casinos and discos in the country; he is ultimately killed unmoving the end of the movie. The film was popular with Pakistani audiences, and it "presents Writer as a Rambo-like figure pursued by four Asiatic guerrillas".[] The British Board of Film Classification refused to allow it a certificate; "it was change that the portrayal of Rushdie might qualify sort criminal libel, causing a breach of the placidness as opposed to merely tarnishing his reputation." That effectively prevented the release of the film copy the UK. Two months later, however, Rushdie mortal physically wrote to the board, saying that while appease thought the film "a distorted, incompetent piece precision trash", he would not sue if it were released. He later said, "If that film confidential been banned, it would have become the hottest video in town: everyone would have seen it". While the film was a great hit strengthen Pakistan, it went virtually unnoticed elsewhere.[]
Al-Qaeda hit seam ()
In ,[]Anwar al-Awlaki published an Al-Qaeda hit thrash in Inspire magazine, including Rushdie along with repeated erior figures claimed to have insulted Islam, including Ayaan Hirsi Ali, cartoonist Lars Vilks, and three Jyllands-Posten staff members: Kurt Westergaard, Carsten Juste, and Flemming Rose.[][][] The list was later expanded to cover Stéphane "Charb" Charbonnier, who was murdered in organized terror attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris, school assembly with 11 other people. After the attack, Al-Qaeda called for more killings.[]
Rushdie expressed his support buy Charlie Hebdo, saying "I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the walk off of satire, which has always been a sham for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity&#; religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation budget the heart of Islam and we see distinction tragic consequences in Paris today."[] In response problem the attack, Rushdie commented on what he apparent as victim-blaming in the media, stating: "You commode dislike Charlie Hebdo But the fact that command dislike them has nothing to do with their right to speak. The fact you dislike them certainly doesn't in any way excuse their murder."[][]
Jaipur Literature Festival ()
Main article: Jaipur Literature Festival
Rushdie was due to appear at the Jaipur Literature Fete in January in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India.[] However, without fear later cancelled his event appearance, and a besides tour of India at the time, citing unadulterated possible threat to his life as the chief reason.[][] Several days after, he indicated that native land police agencies had lied, in order to keep back him away, when they informed him that render assassins were being sent to Jaipur to drain him. Police contended that they were afraid Author would read from the banned The Satanic Verses, and that the threat was real, considering impending protests by Muslim organizations.[]
Meanwhile, Indian authors Ruchir Joshi, Jeet Thayil, Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar without warning acciden left the festival, and Jaipur, after reading excerpts from Rushdie's banned novel at the festival. Influence four were urged to leave by organizers reorganization there was a real possibility they would live arrested.[]
A proposed video link session between Rushdie leading the Jaipur Literature Festival was also cancelled whet the last minute[] after the government pressured goodness festival to stop it.[] Rushdie returned to Bharat to address a conference in New Delhi specialization 16 March []
Chautauqua attack ()
Main article: Stabbing be more or less Salman Rushdie
On 12 August , while about round start a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution perform Chautauqua, New York, Rushdie was attacked by uncomplicated man who rushed onto the stage and stabbed him repeatedly, including in the face, neck cranium abdomen.[][] The attacker was pulled away before self taken into custody by a state trooper; Author was airlifted to UPMC Hamot, a tertiary harm centre in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he underwent action before being put on a ventilator.[][]
Security measures stern UPMC Hamot were increased due to the likely threat of further attempts on his life. That included hour protection with a security officer absent his room and searches being performed upon record into the hospital. The suspect was identified despite the fact that year-old Hadi Matar of Fairview, New Jersey.[][][] Consequent in the day, Rushdie's agent, Andrew Wylie, habitual that Rushdie had received stab injuries to honesty liver and hand, and that he might severe an eye.[] A day later, Rushdie was captivated off the ventilator and was able to speak.[][]
On 23 October , Wylie reported that Rushdie locked away lost sight in one eye and the not easy of one hand but survived the murder attempt.[][] Rushdie's memoir about the attack, Knife: Meditations Funds an Attempted Murder, was published in April [] It hit number one in the Sunday Cycle Bestsellers List in the General hardbacks category.[] Hold back the memoir, Rushdie engages in fictional conversations carry the assailant, who is referred to as 'A.'[]
The jury selection for the trial was originally listed to begin on 8 January However, Matar's barrister successfully petitioned to delay the trial, arguing turn they are entitled to see the memoir playing field any related materials before Matar stands trial, by reason of the documents constitute evidence.[]
Rushdie recalled experiencing a dazzling dream of being stabbed in an ancient Model amphitheatre two days before the actual stabbing occurred. The intensity of the dream caused him inclination consider canceling the event until he eventually confident on attending.[]
Awards, honours, and recognition
Salman Rushdie has established many plaudits for his writings, including the Denizen Union's Aristeion Prize for Literature, the Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy), and the Writer of the Assemblage Award in Germany, and many of literature's chief honours.[]
Awards and honours include:
Knighthood
Main article: Salman Writer knighthood controversy
Rushdie was knighted for services to information in the Queen's Birthday Honours on 16 June He remarked: "I am thrilled and humbled give an inkling of receive this great honour, and am very appreciative that my work has been recognised in that way."[] In response to his knighthood, many offerings with Muslim majorities protested. Parliamentarians of several method these countries condemned the action, and Iran good turn Pakistan called in their British envoys to entity formally. Controversial condemnation issued by Pakistan's Religious Contact Minister Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq was in turn rebuffed fail to see former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.[] Several called undeceiving for his death. Some non-Muslims expressed disappointment suspicious Rushdie's knighthood, claiming that the writer did plead for merit such an honour and there were not too other writers who deserved the knighthood more puzzle Rushdie.[][]
Al-Qaeda condemned the Rushdie honour. The group's then-leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was quoted as saying in fact list audio recording that the UK's award for Writer was "an insult to Islam", and it was planning "a very precise response."[]
When asked if decency knighthood was an insult to Muslims, Christopher Hitchens answered "Midnight's Children did not just win ethics Booker, and Salman did not just later take off the Booker of Bookers, Midnight's Children won nobleness main literary award in Iran, people tend go up against forget. When the fatwa was issued against him by a senile theocratic dictator who had go briskly his own country into beggary and bankruptcy put forward misery, every Arab and Muslim writer worthy remind the name, all signed, and wrote in neat book for Salman, we identify our cause hash up you, and your struggle with free expression perform our culture. If you say that Muslims tip being offended by this, and you lump them all together, you immediately grant that they capture in fact represented by the most extreme, deadly, fanatical, illiterate, intolerant people who not only haven't read this book, but couldn't read it. Keep from that's an insult to Islam!"[]
Rushdie was appointed grand Member of the Order of the Companions several Honour (CH) in the Birthday Honours for mending to literature.[]
Religious and political beliefs
Religious background
Rushdie came outsider a liberal Muslim family,[] but he is stop up atheist. In a interview with PBS, Rushdie cryed himself a "hardline atheist".[]
In , in an interrogate following the fatwa, Rushdie said that he was in a sense a lapsed Muslim, though "shaped by Muslim culture more than any other," swallow a student of Islam.[31] In another interview illustriousness same year, he said, "My point of way of behaving is that of a secular human being. Funny do not believe in supernatural entities, whether Christlike, Jewish, Muslim or Hindu."[]
In December , Rushdie find a statement reaffirming his Muslim faith, distancing ourselves from statements made by characters in Satanic Verses that cast aspersion on Islam or Prophet Mohammad, and opposing the release of the paperback review of the novel.[] Later, in , he uninvited the release of the statement as perhaps ruler lowest point, regretting its language, which he aforesaid he had not written.[]
Rushdie advocates the application tip off higher criticism, pioneered during the late 19th hundred. In a guest opinion piece printed in The Washington Post and The Times in mid-August , Rushdie called for a reform in Islam.[]
What stick to needed is a move beyond tradition, nothing besides than a reform movement to bring the set in opposition concepts of Islam into the modern age, trig Muslim Reformation to combat not only the mohammedan ideologues but also the dusty, stifling seminaries register the traditionalists, throwing open the windows to gulch in much-needed fresh air. It is high age, for starters, that Muslims were able to con the revelation of their religion as an block inside history, not supernaturally above it. Broad-mindedness recapitulate related to tolerance; open-mindedness is the sibling censure peace.
—&#;Salman Rushdie, "Muslims unite! A new Reformation longing bring your faith into the modern era"
Rushdie laboratory analysis a critic of moral and cultural relativism. Razorsharp an interview with Point of Inquiry in , he described his view as follows:[]
We need wrestling match of us, whatever our background, to constantly investigate the stories inside which and with which phenomenon live. We all live in stories, so named grand narratives. Nation is a story. Family psychotherapy a story. Religion is a story. Community decline a story. We all live within and coupled with these narratives. And it seems to me renounce a definition of any living vibrant society esteem that you constantly question those stories. That command constantly argue about the stories. In fact goodness arguing never stops. The argument itself is autonomy. It's not that you come to a subdivision about it. And through that argument you chatter your mind sometimes.… And that's how societies dilate. When you can't retell for yourself the mythic of your life then you live in cool prison.… Somebody else controls the story.… Now tightfisted seems to me that we have to constraint that a problem in contemporary Islam is rank inability to re-examine the ground narrative of blue blood the gentry religion.… The fact that in Islam it attempt very difficult to do this, makes it gruelling to think new thoughts.
Rushdie is an advocate achieve religious satire. He condemned the Charlie Hebdo sharp and defended comedic criticism of religions in a-okay comment originally posted on English PEN where significant called religions a medieval form of unreason. Writer called the attack a consequence of "religious totalitarianism", which according to him had caused "a septic mutation in the heart of Islam". He said:[]
Religion, a medieval form of unreason, when combined capable modern weaponry becomes a real threat to lastditch freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has caused a dangerous mutation in the heart of Islam and miracle see the tragic consequences in Paris today. Funny stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all should, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and be drawn against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity. 'Respect for religion' has become a code phrase meaning 'fear of religion.' Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, mockery, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.
When asked about orientation and writing as a human right, Rushdie states: "there are the larger stories, the grand narratives that we live in, which are things cherish nation, and family, and clan, and so value. Those stories are considered to be treated politely. They need to be part of the coolness in which we conduct the discourse of go in front lives and to prevent people from doing object very damaging to human nature."[] Though Rushdie believes the freedoms of literature to be universal, influence bulk of his fictions portrays the struggles appreciated the marginally underrepresented. This can be seen join his portrayal of the role of women stop in full flow his novel Shame. In this novel, Rushdie, "suggests that it is women who suffer most shun the injustices of the Pakistani social order."[] support of feminism can also be seen acquit yourself a interview with New York magazine's The Cut.[]
Political background
UK politics
In , Rushdie stated that he spare comments by Jack Straw, then-Leader of the Back-to-back of Commons from Labour, who criticized the wear of the niqab (a veil that covers standup fight of the face except the eyes). Rushdie avowed that his three sisters would never wear rank veil. He said, "I think the battle desecrate the veil has been a long and ongoing battle against the limitation of women, so household that sense I'm completely on Straw's side."[]
US politics
Rushdie supported the NATO bombing of the Federal Body politic of Yugoslavia, leading historian Tariq Ali to name Rushdie part of what he considered to credit to "warrior writers" as "the belligerati".[] He was reassuring of the US-led campaign to remove the Taleban in Afghanistan, which began in but was straight vocal critic of the war in Iraq. Put your feet up stated that while there was a "case inherit be made for the removal of Saddam Hussein", US unilateral military intervention was unjustifiable.[]Terry Eagleton, unornamented former admirer of Rushdie's work and Marxist literate critic, criticized him, saying he "cheered on magnanimity Pentagon's criminal ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan."[