meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Fresh Air

Salman Rushdie On Surviving Attempted Murder

Fresh Air

NPR

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.434.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Rushdie was onstage at a literary event in 2022 when he was attacked by a man in the audience: "Dying in the company of strangers — that was what was going through my mind." His new book is Knife.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This message comes from NPR sponsor Organic Valley, a co-op of small organic family farms dedicated to producing food that promotes respect for the dignity and interdependence of all life.

0:11.0

Discover their milk at ovae. coop slash ethically sourced.

0:17.0

This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross. I'm grateful to say that Salmone Rushdie is my guest, because I love his new memoir, and because

0:25.8

I'm grateful that he's alive. Even the doctors didn't think he'd survive after he was stabbed

0:31.3

over and over two years ago.

0:34.0

The attack was shocking.

0:35.6

It had been 33 and a half years since Iran's Ayatollah Komeni had issued a fatwa,

0:40.9

a religious ruling, calling for Rushty's death.

0:44.5

To the Ayatollah, it was a righteous way to punish Rushdie for having written the 1988

0:49.7

novel, The Satanic verses, which to the Ayatollah was blasphemous in its treatment of Islam

0:55.6

and the Prophet Muhammad. Reshti grew up in India and a secular Muslim family.

1:01.2

He has never been religious. At the time of the fatwa, Rushty had been

1:05.8

living in London for a long time. The fatwa was an invitation to would-be

1:10.6

assassins. Faced with this threat, Rushty was surrounded by security

1:15.6

and stayed out of public view for years.

1:18.8

Eventually, Rushty reclaimed his life.

1:21.9

So why all these years later was he attacked?

1:24.8

And why by a 24-year-old man who wasn't even born

1:27.8

when the fatwa was issued?

1:29.8

These are some of the questions

1:31.0

Rushty asked himself in his new memoir,

1:33.8

Nife, meditations after an attempted murder.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.