Sir Salman Rushdie ‘may not speak at open public events again’ after 2022 attack

Sir Salman Rushdie has revealed that he has “crazy dreams” and is unsure if he will ever speak at an open public event again after being attacked in New York last year.

The 76-year-old Indian-born British author said he felt “very lucky” and had received a “huge outpouring of support and affection” following the incident in August 2022.

Sir Salman was stabbed repeatedly while on stage at a literary festival at the Chautauqua Institute in New York state, which left him blind in one eye.

His alleged attacker, 25-year-old Hadi Matar, has made multiple appearances at Chautauqua County Court, having pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges following the incident.

Speaking to the BBC for the first time since the incident, the Booker Prize-winner said he was “a little beaten up” but “well on the way” to recovery.

Asked how he felt, Sir Salman said: “First of all I feel very lucky, I discovered what a lucky person I am.

“Then there was this huge outpouring of support and affection and that was incredibly moving to feel – to be on the receiving end of that.

“And it’s a little strange as the moment when these threats began in 1989, frankly there wasn’t so much of an outpouring of affection – there was quite a lot of the other thing.”

Sir Salman’s novel The Satanic Verses previously led to death threats from Iran, though he went for many years “living a full life” without protection.

The author told the BBC he was “in two minds” about Matar.

“There’s one bit of me that actually wants to go and stand on the court and look at him and there’s another bit of me that just can’t be bothered,” he said.

“As you can well understand I don’t have a very high opinion of him.

“And I think what is important to me now is that you’re able to find life continuing, and I’m more engaged with the business of that, you know, getting on with it.”

Sir Salman said he was currently in the process of writing about the incident, telling the BBC the book will not be more than a “couple of hundred of pages” long.

“There’s this colossal elephant in the room and, until I deal with that, it is difficult to take seriously anything else,” he said.

Speaking about his recovery since the attack, Sir Salman said: “The physical stuff is more or less OK, with the exception of having lost an eye – but otherwise the physical stuff is reasonably alright.

“The emotional stuff, it takes dealing with. I have a very good therapist who has a lot of work to do. I have crazy dreams.

“But I think really the main difference is I don’t know when I will again do a public event that is open to the public that anyone can show up.

“I don’t know when I’m going to put myself in that position again.”

Sir Salman said he hoped a time would arrive that people could read The Satanic Verses as a novel, rather than “a political hot potato”.

“You’ve got to distinguish between people’s private faith, which is kind of none of our business, really, and the politicisation of any religion and the weaponisation of religion – it’s not just Islam,” he said.

“In America right now, you’ve got a highly weaponised version of Christianity, which was responsible in very large part for the reversal of Roe versus Wade – for the whole abortion debate.

“I’m not a religious person. I never have been, and came from a family that wasn’t particularly religious and we did alright…

“It’s not a thing I need for myself but if there are people who need it, that’s their business, not mine, until it becomes politicised.

“When it becomes politicised, it becomes everybody’s business, as all political things do. I think we just have to be clear about that distinction.

“So the kind of person who goes off and chooses violence, in my view, is not a representative of that religion but a representative of violence and has to be treated in that way.”