The 24-year-old man charged with the attempted murder of Salman Rushdie has denied being in contact with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and said that he acted alone when he stabbed the Mumbai-born author, whom he disliked for being 'disingenuous'.
'Rushdie spent more than a decade of his life in hiding. And finally, he said, no more, I'm coming out. I'm coming out of the shadows. I will not be bowed by fear or a threat. And to those of us who go about our daily lives'
Twenty four years after he shot off an open letter to the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi criticising the ban on The Satanic Verses, India-born controversial author Salman Rushdie now admits that his reaction was "arrogant", "angry" and "cheek".
Writer Amitava Kumar speaks to Aseem Chhabra about life after he read from The Satanic Verses at the Jaipur Literary Festival.
Salman Rushdie is a "poor" and "sub-standard writer" who would have remained largely unknown but for his controversial book The Satanic Verses, according to Markandey Katju, till recently a judge of the Supreme Court.
Opposing controversial author Salman Rushdie's visit to India, Islamic Seminary Darul Uloom Deoband on Monday said the government should cancel his visa as he had hurt religious sentiments of Muslims in the past.
As the four authors who read out from The Satanic Verses have been asked to leave Jaipur, yet another speaker steps across the line. Rediff.com's Abhishek Mande takes you through the day in pictures and videos.
The Gujarat government slammed Jaswant's book titled Jinnah: India-Partition, Independence, accusing him of denigrating the image of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, who was a Gujarati and held in high esteem by people across Gujarat and rest of the India for his role during India's freedom struggle against the British rulers.
Booker Award winning Indian-origin novelist Salman Rushdie has said he plans to pen down his experiences of a decade in hiding, after a death fatwa was issued against him by the Iranian clergy. The novelist of 'The Satanic Verses' unfolded his plans to write about his dark days. Rushdie, 62, was forced into hiding in 1989 for a decade after Iran's late spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini ordered Muslims to kill him for his book The Satanic Verses.
Controversial India-born British author Salman Rushdie was knighted by the Queen Elizabeth on Wednesday for his "services to literature." Muslims around the world had condemned the award when it was announced last year in the Monarch's Birthday Honours list.
Now comes word of a relationship with the impossibly long-limbed, strikingly beautiful Pia Glenn, who plays Condoleezza Rice in Will Ferrell's Broadway show, 'You're Welcome, America: A Final Night With George W. Bush.'
As External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee concluded his speech at the Conference, a delegate rose on his feet, displaying a Hindi daily, which had carried out a story on Wednesday on the personal website of the Consul General -- www.ausafsayeed.com -- alleging that it was selling Rushdie's books online.
Indian-born novelist Sir Salman Rushdie, whose book Satanic Verses inflamed the Islamic world, regularly demanded money from British detectives who protected him, according to a former protection officer. Ex-special branch detective Ron Evans, who guarded Sir Salman for three years at the height of the threats on his life generated by a fatwa issued by the Iranian Ayatollah, has claimed this in his autobiography On Her Majesty's Service.
There was no doubt about Pakistan's complicity in the Mumbai attacks, internationally acclaimed India-born author Salman Rushdie has said and urged Britain to stop aid to Islamabad for failing to act against terrorists operating from its soil.
The recent knighthood of Rushdie provoked anti-British sentiments across the Islamic fraternity with hardliners in Iran reviving calls for his murder.
Rushdie went into hiding in 1989 after the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued him with a death threat following the publication of his book, The Satanic Verses. He returned to public life only 10 years later when Tehran withdrew its support for the death sentence.
Having tied the knot four times himself, controversial Indian-origin writer Salman Rushdie says he doesn't think marriage is necessary. Attacking the institution of marriage, Rushdie said he did not believe in it and that women rushed to the altar only because they wanted to wear a 'wedding dress'. The author of The Satanic Verses has been married four times, most recently to Padma Lakshmi, from whom he split last year.
Rushdie, who faced flak from Muslim leaders across the world for his 1988 book Satanic Verses, is presently in the city and staying at the residence of industrialist Adi Godrej in suburban Juhu.
Publishing giant Random House has scrapped plans to publish a book on Aisha, the wife of Prophet Mohammed, fearing that it could be the new Satanic Verses and may draw the wrath of the Muslim community. "I'm devastated," said author Sherry Jones, whose novel The Jewel of Medina was bought by the publisher last year in a $100,000 two-book deal that was abruptly called off in May.
The controversial author has said that his experience of living with fundamentalism has relevance for all people now.
"In no case is violence a response to words spoken or written by others in their exercise of the freedoms of opinion and expression," Guterres said, conveying his wishes for Rushdie's early recovery.
Salman Rushdie, the Mumbai-born controversial author who faced Islamist death threats for years after writing The Satanic Verses, was "still undergoing surgery", several hours after being stabbed by a 24-year-old New Jersey resident at an event in western New York State on Friday.
'Prime Minister Narendra Modiji must personally intervene in the matter to make it clear to his officials and the rank-and-file that communal abuse should now stop'
By sacrificing an important component of the right to free speech, we have strengthened the hands of the fundamentalists, the bigots and the publicity-seeking goondas. And of the hate-filled political establishment, points out Vir Sanghvi.
Eminent British Indian author Salman Rushdie has attacked the "mangled" language of religion, which is turning British Muslims towards extremism.
'You are giving undue importance to this kind of stuff. In the age of the internet, you are making this an issue. It is best forgotten,' the bench had said while hearing a plea to ban the Malayalam novel Meesha (moustache) written by S Hareesh.
Indian-born Booker Prize winning author Salman Rushdie was on Friday named the winner of this year's prestigious Pen Pinter prize for his outstanding literary output and support for freedom of expression.
Zainub Priya Dala was hit in the face with a brick last week after she praised Rushdie's writing at a school in Durban, a city on the country's east coast.
The author was flooded with a barrage of hate messages following his tweet in support of writers who returned their Sahitya Akademi awards.
Naipaul wrote more than 30 books of fiction and nonfiction during his career with a sharp critique of established religion and politicians characterising much of his work.
Today as one sees the Owaisi brothers of Hyderabad seeking to lay claim as the custodian of the Muslim vote and the upholders of the community's interests, it is Shahabuddin who springs to mind for having been there, done that, says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said there was "some amount" of intolerance in the society which has to be identified and dealt with firmly, instead of generalising it.
'Indian secularism doesn't deserve a tombstone. It needs a new shrine,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
o attitudes or interpretations of the law on free speech change, depending on which religion is involved?
'In UP, the CM actually announced that his administration would 'take revenge' against rioters.' 'That must have been music to his police force's ears for it substantiated what the police always do: Take revenge on an entire community for the violence of a few,' points out Jyoti Punwani.
'The casting of a popular hero Ranveer as Bhansali's Khilji sends out an erroneous and contradictory missive to the lay public; a message that tends to equate a leading light with a notorious and treacherous player of medieval history,' notes Vivek Gumaste.
Eminent Punjabi writer and Padma Shri winner Dalip Kaur Tiwana decided to return her award protesting "recurrent atrocities" on Muslims in the country, as another Kannada writer joined authors giving up their Sahitya Akademi Awards against "growing intolerance".
The preferred course of action to challenge Wendy Doniger's many published works and polemical Hinduphobic statements is to debate it, Aseem Shukla tells Rediff.com's Arthur J Pais.
'You made me realise that it is great to be brown, even if we are currently living under Donald Trump's false definition of America.' 'In my 36 years in America there have been few instances where I have laughed and cried so much watching a show about brown people.'
Opposition parties ask the government to listen to the concern of the intellectuals returning awards.
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