Salman Rushdie says he has thought about visiting…
Beginning on Valentine’s Day of 1989, the Booker Prize profitable writer Salman Rushdie had a sword hanging over his head. For a period of time, threats of death adopted him all over the place. The bloody fruits of his life spent alternately on the run and in public — with near-lethal penalties — is captured in “Knife: The Attempted unlawful killing of Salman Rushdie,” a new documentary about Rushdie, his marriage and the risks of fanaticism.
Plagued by threats, Rushdie lived in hiding for some 9 years, operated under the pseudonym Joseph Anton (cribbing the first and last names of two favourite writers: Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekov) and traveled by armored Jaguar.
Author Salman Rushdie attends the Cliveden Literary Festival 2024 at Cliveden House on Saturday, September 21, 2024, in Windsor, England. Getty Images
This was for good purpose: Islamist chief Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had issued a fatwa against him, encouraging Muslims to homicide Rushdie, who was born into a Muslim household himself. The mandate felt as critical as a mafia contract.
Followers of Khomeini cursed Rushdie and rioters burned effigies of the writer. All of that was set off by his e book “The Satanic Verses” (1988), which Khomeini believed blasphemed Mohammed.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ASSOCIATED PRESS
“This was horrifying,” Rushdie told The Post about seeing his face set alight on worldwide newscasts. “I was already reasonably well known as a writer. But suddenly, every taxi driver knew who I was. It felt like my character was being rewritten for me by this public hatred.”
Over time, however, Rushdie went back to dwelling like a well-regarded novelist around city. He may very well be noticed dwelling it up with his then spouse Padma Lakshmi and even did a cameo on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” in which he gave Larry David advice on how to deal with the fatwa that had been leveled against him. Clearly, Rushdie was comfy with who he was and what he had gone through.
“I actually stopped thinking [anything] would happen,” he told The Post. “I’ve been living in New York since the year 2000 and I’ve done probably hundreds of public events in that time without there ever being any trace of a problem. So, you think, okay, that chapter’s closed.”
Then on August 12, 2022, that chapter reopened dramatically. Rushdie had just stepped on stage at the Chautauqua Institute, in Chautauqua, NY, to give a speak on the significance of defending writers. About to start, he was bum-rushed by a blade-wielding radical named Hadi Matar. The extremist stabbed Rushdie 15 instances during an assault that broken his liver, wrecked his left hand, took out his proper eye.
Salman Rushdie attends the 68th National Book Awards at Cipriani Wall Street in New York, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017, 5 years before he was attacked. Getty Images
This ghastly assault and its aftermath are unraveled in “Knife,” directed by Alex Gibney. Underscoring it all, the film reveals Rushdie’s lacerated eye with brutal gore. Rushdie said he cried after discovering out the attention will stay unusable. Four years after, he told The Post, “I wake up every day and think about not having my right eye. Losing a quadrant of my vision makes everything more difficult.”
Ironically, Rushdie’s attacker admitted to having never read “The Satanic Verses.” In the film, Rushdie expresses grave doubt that Khomeini had either.
As “Knife” unfolds, Rushdie refuses to give the would-be assassin any oxygen, opting to keep away from his title and call him Ass, which is shortened to A. Rushdie, who spurns an eyepatch in favor of signature eyeglasses he designed with one lens tinted darkish, said that a follow-up assault is much from his thoughts: “I worry more about someone bumping into me while talking on their phone.”
Alex Gibney attends the premiere of “Musk” during the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival at Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026. Getty Images
In directing “Knife,” Gibney was blessed with a trove of archival footage. For that, he can thank Rushdie’s spouse, Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Soon after racing to see Rushdie in his room at the Pennsylvania hospital to which he was airlifted, Griffiths started filming. Her intimate videos, offering close-up views of pain and resilience, comprise the guts of the film. She is credited as cinematographer and government producer.
“The shock lifted a bit when my camera arrived,” Griffiths, a skilled photographer for more than 20 years, told The Post. “It wasn’t a situation where we were, like, ‘we’re going to make a documentary.’ The camera became my diary, and I did not need to burden anyone with the complicated feelings I was having. I needed to focus on Salman’s survival and care. The camera helped remind me that we were not just powerless victims trapped in this trauma ward.”
Salman Rushdie and his spouse Rachel Eliza Griffiths attend the Cliveden Literary Festival 2024 at Cliveden House on Sunday, September 22, 2024, in Windsor, England. Getty Images
For Rushdie and Griffiths, the documentary “is a way of taking command of the story. It is a way of saying that we get to tell the story.” As for the completed product, said Rushdie, “This is not just [an attempted] murder story. It’s also a love story.”
Last 12 months, the hateful Matar was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Rushdie, on the other hand, is prospering, very a lot on the mend and writing his next e book. He’s having fun with New York again and dwelling the life of an esteemed writer without worrying about “the one crazy kid” who took Khomeini’s bait and went for him.
Despite not being talked about by title in the film, A. does get a “Knife” cameo of kinds, with Rushdie imagining a assembly him for a sit-down in the prison where he is being housed. It begs the query of Rushdie’s need to meet his assailant for real. “I had a brief fantasy about that,” Rushdie said. “But Eliza thought it was a terrible idea and I agree with her. I doubt that he would open his heart to me.”
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