Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Salman Rushdie stabbed

164 replies

latesummervibes · 12/08/2022 16:24

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11106479/Salman-Rushdie-injured-stabbed-ahead-speech-New-York.html

This is shocking. He's had a fatwah hanging over his head for decades hasn't he?

OP posts:
SpinCityBlues · 14/08/2022 07:27

Unfortunately, following relief that Rushdie is likely (hopefully) to survive this awful attack, I’m thinking that his injuries and trauma are going to be severe.

There are now reports he did have security with him? So now what for him, and other high profile figures and their families?

Foe example, did anyone see that vile message to JK Rowling on Twitter? She tweeted a lovely message to support Rushdie and a response to her included, ‘Don’t worry you’re next’. (Twitter says it doesn’t violate its rules, I read.)

How do people stay safe?

EmmaH2022 · 14/08/2022 07:40

JK is not the one to get a “you’re next” message.

I think that he has a long road to recovery but I think he is a very strong person inside. Does anyone know the outlook for the recovery?

EmmaH2022 · 14/08/2022 07:41

*only

way too early for me

forinborin · 14/08/2022 08:13

Every British politician who won't condemn the attack will be non-existent for me from this point onwards. And there's a disturbing number of them.

MrsLargeEmbodied · 14/08/2022 09:32

he is improving which is good news

Grantanow · 14/08/2022 09:48

The mullahs in Iran are cock a hoop about Rushdie's attack. The Iranian government cannot be trusted and sanctions should be stepped up and their supreme leader treated as a terrorist.

SpinCityBlues · 14/08/2022 09:55

Grantanow · 14/08/2022 09:48

The mullahs in Iran are cock a hoop about Rushdie's attack. The Iranian government cannot be trusted and sanctions should be stepped up and their supreme leader treated as a terrorist.

The news on the radio a short while ago played a translation of some of this posturing, nasty shit from a mullah over a background noise of jubilant celebration from a (possibly co-erced) male crowd. I don't think they should give them the oxygen of publicity. Don't give them what they're clearly loving.

Richelieu · 14/08/2022 10:34

I was very shaken at stumbling accidentally across some vile things on Twitter. It’s like turning over a stone and discovering something nightmarish underneath.

I'm also one of the 'old enough to remember' crowd and was working at a venue where Rushdie gave what I think was one of his last public talks about the book in 1989, just before the fatwa was issued. I remember very well the astonishment that we'd been there with him one day, and the next he’d effectively vanished off the face of the earth, and stayed hidden for years.

I see the attacker has, as predicted, pleaded not guilty.

AmandaMirandaPanda · 14/08/2022 14:02

AtrociousCircumstance · 14/08/2022 00:36

Why has the man who attacked Rushdie been charged with second degree attempted murder, and not first degree?

How on earth can he possibly be pleading not guilty, with so many witnesses? On what possible basis? That his intention wasn’t to kill - when it clearly was?

State law applies here, and New York is kind of an outlier. Broadly, most US states make a distinction between first degree murder which is premeditated/pre-planned and second degree murder which is intentional and meant to cause lethal harm, but not premeditated/pre-planned.

New York differs because it has a list of specific conditions which must be met in order to be considered as "first degree murder". New York's conditions for first degree murder include contract killings, but specific that there has to be financial ("pecuniary") motivation/gain, so I suppose responding to a fatwa technically does not qualify. Killings in the service of terrorism also qualify as first degree in New York, so presumably the authorities chose not to pursue that angle or didn't think it applied based on whatever information they have (which may not be public).

JemimaPuddlegoose · 14/08/2022 14:06

Why on earth are people exploiting Rushdie's attack to attack "left wingers" for engaging in censorship?

The fatwa was enacted by Islamic fundamentalists, who are are as far from left wing as it's possible to be.

It's the Tories trying to ban protest and free speech, it's the Tories sending police round to harass people for wrongthink tweets.

It seems like there's a political agenda right now to keep pushing this idea that evil liberals are censorious, but in reality it's mainly the far right who engage in censorship. Look at the recent book thread, lots of uproar about "liberals" wanting trigger warnings and how terrible and censorious it is, not a word about the fact almost all book bannings have been from conservatives/republicans in order to ban books about racism or sex.

Reportedly (this of course may turn out to be baseless) the attack may be linked to the recent revelation that Donald Trump stole highest level American security and nuclear secrets and sold them to the Saudis, necessitating the US security having to change their entire nuclear security protocols overnight. There's speculation Islamic forces who benefited from Trump's espionage were behind the attack to send a message about their control over US soil.

I pray that Rushdie makes a good recovery.

GCAcademic · 14/08/2022 14:26

JemimaPuddlegoose · 14/08/2022 14:06

Why on earth are people exploiting Rushdie's attack to attack "left wingers" for engaging in censorship?

The fatwa was enacted by Islamic fundamentalists, who are are as far from left wing as it's possible to be.

It's the Tories trying to ban protest and free speech, it's the Tories sending police round to harass people for wrongthink tweets.

It seems like there's a political agenda right now to keep pushing this idea that evil liberals are censorious, but in reality it's mainly the far right who engage in censorship. Look at the recent book thread, lots of uproar about "liberals" wanting trigger warnings and how terrible and censorious it is, not a word about the fact almost all book bannings have been from conservatives/republicans in order to ban books about racism or sex.

Reportedly (this of course may turn out to be baseless) the attack may be linked to the recent revelation that Donald Trump stole highest level American security and nuclear secrets and sold them to the Saudis, necessitating the US security having to change their entire nuclear security protocols overnight. There's speculation Islamic forces who benefited from Trump's espionage were behind the attack to send a message about their control over US soil.

I pray that Rushdie makes a good recovery.

Rushdie himself has frequently criticised the so-called progressive Left in relation to the freedom of speech and expression.

What is the source of the speculation you refer to, btw? Not someone “exploiting Rushdie’s attack” to push their own agenda, I take it?

DownNative · 14/08/2022 14:30

Islam seems to be the only religion you cannot criticise or mock without threat to your safety and well-being.

Iran never lifted the fatwa against Rushdie and in 2018 an Austrian woman was fined for comparing the prophet Muhammad to a paedophile. See also Charlie Hebdo attacks.

Those Muslims who get on with their lives and treat everyone else with respect must be furious with Islamic Jihadi Fundamentalists.

DowningStreetParty · 27/08/2022 11:17

BBC: Salman Rushdie: Did a ‘chance’ airport meeting lead to fatwa?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-62561895
Some interesting background analysis into origins of the fatwa

New posts on this thread. Refresh page