New York (AFP) - Some of the great figures of American literature, such as Paul Auster and Guy Tallis, gathered Friday to organize a reading of excerpts from Salman Rushdie's works in support of the British writer who was seriously injured last week in a knife attack.
The gathering, in which about ten well-known writers participated, some of whom were close to Rushdie, took place on the steps of the New York Public Library in the Manhattan neighborhood, and the writer was invited to follow the event via the Internet from his hospital room.
Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, was preparing to give a talk Aug. 12 in upstate New York when a man stormed the stage and stabbed him multiple times in the neck and stomach.
The writer was taken by helicopter to a hospital, where he was connected to a ventilator for some time before his condition improved.
Writer and journalist Guy Tallis read an excerpt from Rushdie's novel "The Golden House," while Irish writer Colum McCann read an excerpt from the article "Out of Kansas," published by Rushdie in The New Yorker in 1992. McCann said that the writer is of Indian origin. He has always shown himself to be up to the occasion," adding, "I think he'll have some deep words to say" after his recovery.
The American writer A. Mother. Homes, some of whose books, such as the novel “The End of Alice,” sparked debates, reading excerpts from a text by Rushdie entitled “On Censorship” extracted from a lecture he gave in 2012.
"No writer really wants to talk about censorship," the clip states. "Writers want to talk about creativity, and censorship is anti-creativity."
Salman Rushdie was stabbed more than 33 years after the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa on February 14, 1989, following the publication of his novel "The Satanic Verses", which sparked outrage in the Islamic world.
Rushdi was forced to hide under security guard and move from hiding place to hiding place.
British novelist and journalist Harry Kunzru read the beginning of the novel that radically and permanently changed Rushdie's life.
"Salman once wrote that the writer's role is to describe the unspeakable, to expose the hypocrites, take a side, launch discussions, leave a mark on the world and prevent it from sinking into slumber... That is why we are here," he said.
The perpetrator of the attack, Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old American of Lebanese descent, pleaded not guilty to the charge of "attempted murder and assault" against him, when he appeared Thursday for the first time before a court since he was charged.
"Even a knife in Salman Rushdie's throat cannot silence his voice," said Susan Nossel, head of the American branch of the PEN Association for the Defense of Writers in the World, which organized the gathering.
Before reciting a text in turn, British writer Tina Brown went directly to Salman Rushdie, saying, "You have never asked to play the role of a hero."
And she continued, "All you wanted was to devote yourself to writing. But your intransigence in defending freedom of expression made you a hero, and you paid a terrible price."
Writer and historian Amanda Foreman said Friday's mobilization "proves that people are not afraid."
"We are all ready to stand up for what we believe in," she told AFP.
Salman Rushdie was born on June 19, 1947 in Bombay, India, into a family of intellectual non-practicing Muslims, a wealthy, progressive, and educated family.
Despite the danger, he has recently appeared increasingly in public without apparent security protection, while continuing to defend in his books freedom of satire and disrespect for religions.
In an interview he gave to the German magazine Stern a few days before the attack, he was "optimistic", saying, "Since I moved to the United States, I no longer have a problem... My life has returned to normal again."
