Salman Rushdie

Rushdie was repeatedly stabbed on stage at Chautauqua in August 2022 and lost, among other things, sight in his right eye. Hadi Matar was found guilty in February 2025 of attempted murder and assault, then sentenced in May 2025 to 25 years' imprisonment for the attack on Rushdie, with an additional sentence for assaulting the moderator.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

Attribution

Protagonist is the victim

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist is the victim

In November 2024, the Delhi High Court closed a challenge to the 1988 import ban after the administration acknowledged that it could no longer locate the notification; the court held that, for those proceedings, it had to presume that the notification did not exist. In 2025, the Supreme Court subsequently rejected an application seeking a new ban on the novel.

State of the evidence

Documented

Rushdie vigorously defended PEN America's decision to honour Charlie Hebdo following the January 2015 attack. He called six writers who withdrew their participation “pussies” and “fellow travellers” of Islamist fanaticism, triggering a public dispute with figures including Francine Prose. He subsequently expressed regret over the sexually charged insult while maintaining his substantive disagreement.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

Rushdie initially cancelled his visit to the Jaipur Literature Festival after being warned of an assassination plot; he subsequently claimed that authorities had misled him about the threat's existence. A planned video appearance was eventually cancelled after police warned organisers of a risk of violence and rioting.

State of the evidence

Documented

Awarding Rushdie the title of Knight Bachelor for services to literature triggered protests in Pakistan and Iran. Pakistan's parliament condemned the honour, Iranian representatives protested officially and some leaders or groups renewed calls to kill the writer.

State of the evidence

Documented

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in February 1989 calling for the killing of Rushdie and people involved in publishing the book. The writer lived under protection for years; translators and publishers were attacked. In 1998, the Iranian government announced that it would not seek to implement the fatwa, although Iranian religious authorities said it could not formally revoke it.

State of the evidence

Well documented

After nearly two years in hiding, Rushdie publicly declared a return to Islam, distanced himself from certain passages of the novel and announced that he would not authorise a paperback edition or new translations while the risk of offence remained. He subsequently described this attempted reconciliation as a serious mistake and withdrew his profession of faith.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

Publication of The Satanic Verses triggered an international crisis: India quickly banned importation of the book, copies were publicly burned in the United Kingdom and demonstrations, sometimes violent, took place in several countries. Muslim organisations and leaders accused the novel of blasphemy and demanded its withdrawal.

State of the evidence

Well documented

Indira Gandhi brought a defamation action in the United Kingdom over a sentence in Midnight's Children concerning her husband Feroze Gandhi and their son Sanjay. Rushdie agreed to remove the disputed sentence from subsequent editions, and the case was settled without a judgment on the merits.

State of the evidence

Settlement