State police say that they are investigating an attack
on Author Salman Rushdie.
They say that a male suspect now in custody ran on stage at Taqwa and
attacked Rushdie, Rushdie and an interviewer as well,
and that Rushdie suffered an apparent stab wound to the neck.
>> So you might have been following the breaking news of Author Salman Rushdie
being attacked earlier today.
It was not immediately clear how serious it was, but
it turned out to be incredibly serious.
He did suffer a stab wound.
One witness said that the attack lasted about 20 seconds in part because people
didn't understand what was happening.
They were so shocked that people didn't immediately intervene.
As of right now, he's at a hospital.
His condition is described as serious but recoverable.
It isn't believed at this point that he will die,
although obviously these situations can change in Rushdie is 75 years old.
A lot of people are wondering why, considering the long history of violent
protests concerning his work, which we'll get into.
Why there wasn't better security, although he does do a lot of talks.
And so at some point, I suppose he's gonna he's gonna do it at a place that's
not gonna take it serious enough, this particular place by the way,
no metal detectors, no bag checks people.
Most people leave the doors of their century old cottages in this place
unlocked at night.
It's considered a very peaceful place, but unfortunately, this still occurred.
Now if you're not familiar with Salman Rushdie or why.
First of all, we do not know if this is why the attack happened,
let's be very clear about this.
This is pure speculation at this point, but
based on some history, he wrote a book back in 1988,
known as the Satanic Verses that was viewed by many Muslims as blasphemous.
In the aftermath of that there were violent protests around the work,
incredibly violent.
At least 45 people were killed in riots, including 12 people just in his hometown
of Mumbai, a Japanese translator of his book years later was stabbed to death.
An Italian translator survived the knife attack.
The books Norwegian publisher was shot several years later but
survived and the book was banned in Iran where the Ayatollah Khomeini
issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for his death.
And there was a promise of millions of dollars to the person who was able to
kill him.
And so for many years he went into hiding, he's obviously feared attacks for
some time again, we do not know if this is why the attack happened, but
it doesn't seem completely implausible.
>> Yeah, and given that we just found out about the Iranian plot on John Bolton,
I don't know that those two things are connected,
but after all these years to for somebody to attack him now seems strange,
but it would be surprising if it wasn't about satanic verses.
Okay, number two, to be fair to the security there initial reports
are that a state trooper is the one that basically saved his life.
So, and by the way, the crowd was incredibly hero, they rushed the stage and
subdued the guy.
So thank God for everybody on the scene that he survived and
the moderator survived, etc.
Now, Salman Rushdie is an absolute genius, one of the greatest writers of our lives.
My favorite fiction book of all time is Midnight's Children,
a different book from him.
And so when fundamentalists do these attacks,
if it was a fundamentalist,, they're basically admitting we've lost,
we've lost the battle of ideas, we cannot debate you.
You're obviously correct and everything we believe in is a lie.
So that's why we're resorting to violence.
There's no way in the world we could beat Salman Rushdie in a battle of ideas.
They're admitting when they go to violence.
And so, and this is not a powerless group that is fighting back against
oppression and resorting to violence, Iran is a giant state.
And if it was them, well,
we know it was them that at least put the bounty on his head, right?
So that's the grand Ayatollah saying, I'm an idiot,
why don't you go debate Salman Rushdie or you can't do that, right?
Cuz he would if you would kill you in the debate intellectually, intellectually.
But you're not an intellect, all these fundamentalists of any religion,
they're the exact opposite of intellectuals.
And when they do the acts of violence, it is an admission of defeat,
we're too stupid and we're too wrong.
And and I'll say one more thing about it, your God is so
mighty that he needs you Rushdie to act on his behalf?
I thought he was all powerful.
I mean, what can you do to him that all is not gonna do to him in eternity.
>> All right.
>> Now, this is important to clarify the overwhelming majority
of Muslims do not agree to this.
They think this is terrible and important.
The fundamentalist Muslims are the right wing of the Muslim world and
they are shunned by the center and the left.
And it is the fundamentalist right wing of the Muslim world that says, no,
we're stupid and we can't possibly win if we're discussing ideas,
so we're gonna be barbarians and we're gonna attack.
And by the way, admit that Allah is not at all powerful and I have to do it for.
>> And we don't enjoy a good book, just one book apparently.
But I mean look, we're we're on an anniversary also of the Murder
of Heather Heyer at the unite the right rally.
And in 2017, and that's where this country is headed as well.
I mean, you think there's logic when it comes to white nationalism or
Christian chauvinism or white identitarian politics.
No, there's not, and they're cowards every time they get challenged to a debate,
they run away or they get tricked by a dolphin fetus, what have you.
And [LAUGH] >> Thing that actually happened.
>> The hing that actually happened, and so you see the way that yeah,
that Christians in this country being misrepresented by a growing but
a minority of crazies, and
how it is conflated also with incredible racism and white supremacy.
So anyway.
>> Yeah, fundamentalists are all the same, no matter what the religion is,
no matter what the nationality is, you've got all these Christian nationalists now
throughout the world, the guy who did the attack on Muslims in new Zealand, right.
You've got Dylann Roof doing the attack on black folks for white nationalism,
you've got other Christian nationalists that murdered here in America on behalf of
Christianity and then that's when Christians will scream,
well that's not real Christianity.
Exactly, that's the same exact thing Muslims say.
And then racist bigots like Bill Maher and joe Rogan and Sam Harris here will turn
around and go, no, that is all Muslims, but Christian, like I once said,
hey, Christians did the holocaust and the right wing was outrageous.
They're like how dare he say something that's true?
Okay, no, no, I'm not saying all Christians did it, but
that Adolf Hitler literally said, I'm doing this for Jesus Christ, right.
Now you are right as a Christian, when you say that does not represent me,
that is not at all, all Christians, you're absolutely right about that.
And so are all these Muslims saying that fundamentalist lunatic does not
represent us 1.6 billion Muslims across the world, and
all of us need to unite to fight against these fundamentalists of all stripes.