As Salman Rushdie fights for his life after being brutally stabbed Friday whereas delivering a lecture onstage, Invoice Maher spoke out in regards to the circumstances underlying the assault on the creator.
Rushdie, Maher’s good friend and frequent visitor on his politically charged HBO discuss present “Actual Time”, has been dwelling underneath a fatwa since 1989, when Iranian ruler Ayatollah Khomeini issued an order for Muslims to kill Rushdie as a result of alleged blasphemy contained in his ebook The Satanic Verses.
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Author Salman Rushdie Attacked Before Lecture On New York Stage
“The information is not good,” Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie informed the New York Times, revealing that medical doctors had positioned Rushdie on a ventilator so as to breathe. “Salman will probably lose one eye; the nerves in his arm had been severed; and his liver was stabbed and broken,” Wyle stated.
Maher addressed Rushdie’s assault on Friday’s version of “Actual Time”, telling viewers that “a good friend of mine, an expensive good friend of mine, good good friend of this present, acquired stabbed at this time.”
Maher defined that “Sal did have some enemies up to now,” referring to the Ayatollah’s fatwa, and detailed the circumstances of the assault.
“Sal was in Chautaugua, he was giving a lecture — how’s this for irony — about how the U.S. is a secure haven for writers and different artists underneath menace of persecution,” Maher stated.
“And making that speech itself is unthinkable in most Muslim nations. Salman Rushdie dwelling in most Muslim nations, with out getting stabbed daily, is unthinkable,” he added.
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“So don’t come at me with Islamophobic,” Maher stated, countering those that would contemplate his criticism of Islamic fundamentalism to be Islamophobia.
“Phobic means concern, proper? Nicely, Sal had purpose to be fearful. And if you say phobic, it’s only a approach to shut off debate. , they use transphobic, Islamophobic, and we must always have a debate about this,” he stated.
“These items don’t go away,” the Maher concluded. “Islam continues to be a way more fundamentalist faith than any of the opposite religions on the earth and which means they take what’s within the holy ebook severely and that has been harmful for a very long time. It’s nonetheless harmful.”
“Actual Time” visitor Piers Morgan identified that it’s not simply Islam that’s problematic, however fundamentalism inside each faith, significantly when it infringes upon somebody’s skill to talk freely.
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“The defence of free speech begins with one thing you’ll be able to’t stand,” Morgan stated, explaining that one can disagree with another person’s opinions, “however it is best to have the ability to tolerate their proper to have a distinct opinion.”
Morgan stated he’s witnessing America transfer in an analogous route, evaluating the assault on Rushdie to comic David Chappelle being attacked whereas performing onstage.
“It’s nuts,” Morgan stated.“While you stray into violence, it winds up with Salman.”