America - (AFP) - British writer Salman Rushdie , whose bloodshed was issued by the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in 1989 for his novel "The Satanic Verses", is in hospital, where he was put on a respirator after a man stabbed him in the neck and stomach during A conference in New York State was later suspended, sparking a series of international condemnations.

No information was disclosed about the development of the health status of the writer, who is connected to a respirator in a hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, on the shore of a lake bearing the same name as the city separating the United States and Canada.

The attack sparked international condemnation, with the White House calling it a "horrific act of violence".

The satirical French newspaper "Charlie Hebdo", which targeted an attack in which almost all members of its editorial staff were executed in 2015, declared that "nothing justifies a fatwa, nothing justifies a death sentence."

The attacker was arrested immediately and is under investigation. The police pointed out that his name is Hadi Matar, 24 years old, and lives in Fairfield, New Jersey.

Ali Qassem Tuhfa, mayor of the village of Yaroun in southern Lebanon, indicated that Hadi Matar is "of Lebanese origin."

He continued, in an interview with Agence France-Presse, "He was born and raised in the United States, and his father and mother are from Yaron."

Iran's ultra-conservative Kayhan newspaper on Saturday congratulated the attacker. "Congratulations to this brave, duty-conscious man who attacked the apostate and evil Salman Rushdie," wrote the newspaper, whose president is appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "Let us kiss the hand of the one who tore the neck of the enemy of God with a knife," she added.

In the book market in Tehran on Saturday, everyone is aware of the attack on British writer Salman Rushdie in the United States, but only supporters of the operation express their opinions.

"I was very pleased to hear the news," said Mehrab Begdali, who introduces himself as a devout Shiite. "Whoever carried out the attack, I kiss his hand (...) May God curse Salman Rushdie."

Immediately after the assault on Salman Rushdie and his interlocutor took place in a lecture hall at a cultural center in Chautauqua, northwest New York, the writer was taken by helicopter to the nearest hospital, where he underwent urgent surgery, New York State Police Major Eugene Staniszewski told reporters.

And the police had announced before 11:00 (15:00 GMT) that a man "rushed into the theater (the amphitheater) and attacked Salman Rushdie and his interlocutor," explaining that he "stabbed" the writer "in the neck" and "in the stomach."

"The news is not good," Andrew Wiley's agent told the New York Times Friday night.

He said that Salman Rushdie, 75, "will likely lose one of his eyes, the nerves in his arm were cut off, and his liver was stabbed and damaged," noting that the writer is connected to a respirator.

As for the interviewer, Ralph Henry Reese (73 years old), he suffered "minor injuries in the face," according to the same source, and was released from the hospital.
Carl Levan, a professor of political science who was in the hall, said in a telephone conversation with Agence France-Presse that a man rushed to the stage where Rushdie was sitting and stabbed him violently several times, "trying to kill him."

Salman Rushdie was born on June 19, 1947 in Bombay, two months before India gained independence, and grew up in a family of wealthy and progressive Muslim intellectuals. He angered the Islamic world with his novel "The Satanic Verses," prompting Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa in 1989 calling for his death.

The novelist has since had to go into hiding, living in secrecy under police protection.

He suffered severe isolation, which worsened with his separation from his wife, American novelist Marian Wiggins, to whom he dedicated his book "The Satanic Verses."

He has been living for years out of sight in New York, where he has gradually resumed an almost normal life, continuing to defend in his books freedom of sarcasm and disrespect for religions.

However, the "fatwa" was not revoked, and the attacks targeted many of the translators of his book, wounding some of them and killing others, such as the Japanese Hitoshi Igarashi, who was stabbed several times in 1991.

On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced in a tweet, "For 33 years, Salman Rushdie has embodied freedom and the fight against obscurantism (...) His struggle is our struggle, and it is a global struggle. Today, we stand by him more than ever."

In turn, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the "horrific" attack, stressing that "violence can in no way be a response to words."
A similar condemnation was issued by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres.