Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed on Friday, told a German magazine only a fortnight ago that his life was now “very normal,” and that he would have faced far more danger if social media had existed when his novel The Satanic Verses was published in 1988, and that death threats to public figures had become “normal.”
In an interview with Stern magazine, the author described how Iran’s then-spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa against him:
“A fatwa is a serious matter. We were fortunate not to have access to the internet at the time. The fatwa had to be sent to the mosques by the Iranians. That was a very long time ago. My life has returned to normalcy.”
Rushdie also told the magazine that, while he was motivated by young people’s actions, what concerned him now was not religious extremism, but the erosion of democracy.
“I’ve been concerned about the United States’ ability to do so since the Supreme Court’s abortion decision. That the issues are irreversible and that the country will disintegrate. Today’s biggest threat is cryptofascism, which we see in the United States and others.
“Oh, we live in frightening times.” That is true, despite the fact that I usually advise them not to be scared. The bad news is that death threats have become increasingly common. Not just politicians, but also American teachers who remove specific texts from the curriculum, receive them.”
