The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

DR VICTORIA Allen, wife of a noted Bahamian psychiatrist, has recounted the horrific stabbing of internationally renowned author Sir Salman Rushdie just after he took the stage at an event in upstate New York on Friday.

Dr Allen, wife of Dr David Allen, was sitting in the third row of the open air amphitheatre, just feet away and described the very moment the event descended into shock and then some pandemonium with a few attendees openly crying and noticeably distressed.

Mr Rushdie, 75, had just been introduced at the Chautauqua Institution, where he was about to be interviewed as part of a summer lecture series, when an attacker “dressed in black” lunged at him and began violently “pounding” the author.

Mr Rushdie was stabbed in his neck and abdomen and had to be placed on a ventilator.

 However, as of yesterday he was taken off the machine. He is said to be in the beginning phases of his recovery.

 “So, they were starting to introduce him. This is at about 10.45am and all of a sudden I saw this guy in all black rush up on the stage,” the former English professor told The Tribune. “I don’t know where he came from, if he jumped up on the stage from the audience or came from the back.

 “I could tell he was a very athletic type of guy and he rushed over and started pounding Rushdie with his fist and I couldn’t see a knife, but all I know is he was pounding with huge force.

 “People from the audience actually jumped up and pulled the guy off and then they scuttled Rushdie into the back behind the screen and it turned out the guy had had a knife and everybody was really shaken up.

 “There were women crying, but I thought ‘wow this is very interesting’ and the guy had been subdued by audience members and also appeared was a state trooper.”

 Despite being wrestled down to the ground, Dr Allen said the attacker “did not give up without a fight.”

 He has since been identified as Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey.

 He was taken into custody at the scene and later charged with attempted murder 2nd degree and assault 2nd degree.

 Matar is being held at Chautauqua County Jail. He was arraigned Saturday and remanded without bail.

 “It was very alarming,” Dr Allen said of the moment following the attack. “I just got up and started taking a few snapshots.

 “Maybe I am short-sighted but I felt he was alone and since there were no explosions or anything I didn’t feel endangered at all.

 “The audience was such a civilised group. There wasn’t screaming or anything and then there was an announcement on the loudspeaker to please remain calm. We would like everyone to evacuate the amphitheatre and everyone did.

 “They just turned and left quietly.”

 She said hours later, all of the day’s events were cancelled.

 “All of our programmes that day were canceled. We found out that Rushdie was rushed to hospital by helicopter for surgery.”

 Mr Rushdie is said to have spoken a few words since being removed from the ventilator.

 Mr Rushdie has a literary career spanning 50 years and has been subject to death threats several times due to the nature of his work.

 The novelist is one of the most celebrated and successful British authors of all Time, with his second novel, Midnight’s Children, winning the illustrious Booker Prize in 1981, according to the BBC.

The news agency said it was his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, published in 1988, which became his most controversial work - bringing about international turmoil unprecedented in its scale.

In the Islamic world, many Muslims reacted with fury to the book’s publication, arguing that the portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad was a grave insult to their faith.

Death threats were made against Rushdie, 75, who was forced to go into hiding, and the British government placed him under police protection.

Iran quickly broke off relations with the UK in protest and the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa - or decree - calling for the novelist’s assassination in 1989 - the year after the book’s publication.

But in the West, authors and intellectuals denounced the threat to freedom of expression posed by the violent reaction to the book.