This is the Guardian.

Today, the violent attack against Salman Rushdie,

and why the author has endured decades of controversy.

On Friday, the British Indian author Salman Rushdie

was due to speak at an event in upstate New York.

He was talking of the Chautauquist institution in New York State

to speak about the importance of America giving asylum to exiled writers

of a cohort of people of whom he's the most famous.

Rushdie is one of Britain's foremost Booker Prize-winning authors.

But after the publication of the Satanic Verses in 1988,

he became one of its most notorious.

After decades of living with death threats, on Friday, he suffered a frenzied assault.

He didn't have personal security with him,

and it doesn't seem like there was any sort of scanning

devices or machines because the attacker got through with a knife.

He was all in black and he was wearing a black mask

that made people think that he was making some sort of statement

as opposed to him posing a risk.

As Rushdie prepared to speak on the panel,

his suspected attacker, Hadimatar,

allegedly stormed the stage and stabbed Rushdie several times.

In the neck, torso, and leg.

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