As the renowned novelist Salman Rushdie became the victim of an on-stage assault, stabbed in the middle of a packed amphitheatre at an event in New York, the incident captured the focus of a Japanese scholar, Hitoshi Igarashi, William Nygaard, Ettore Capriolo and the death of others
The 44-year-old scholar, Hitoshi was also found dead in 1991 under mysterious circumstances.
Hitoshi Igarashi, William Nygaard, Ettore Capriolo And List Of Others Attacked And Killed By Muslims Globally After Iran Fatwa On Salman Rushdie Over The Satanic Verses
– Feb 12, 1989: At least six people are killed in the Pakistani city of Islamabad during the sale of the novel in the United States.
– Feb 14, 1989: The fatwa. Khomeini calls on all Muslims to kill Rushdie.
– Feb 24, 1989: Twelve people are killed in Mumbai during protests against the book
– Sept 14, 1989: Four bombs are planted outside bookshops in Britain owned by Penguin, publisher of “The Satanic Verses”.
– July 3, 1991: Ettore Capriolo, Italian translator of The Satanic Verses, is beaten and attacked with a knife in his Milan flat by a man who says he is Iranian.
– July 12, 1991: Japanese translator Hitoshi Igarashi is stabbed to death in Tokyo by an attacker who flees.
– Sept 7, 1995: After six years under police protection and living in safe houses, Rushdie appears in London in his first pre-announced public appearance since the fatwa was issued.
– Feb 12, 1997: Eight years after it first offered a reward, the Iranian revolutionary 15th Khordad Foundation increases the bounty on Rushdie’s head to $2.5 million.
– Sept 28, 1998: Iranian media say three Iranian clerics have called on Islamic followers to kill Rushdie under the fatwa.
– Oct 4, 1998: Some 160 members of the Iranian parliament say the death decree against Rushdie remains valid.
– Oct 10, 1998: A hardline Iranian student group sets a one billion rial (then $333,000) bounty on the head of Rushdie.
– Oct 12, 1998: State-linked Iranian religious foundation raises its $2.5 million bounty by $300,000.
– Feb 3, 1999: Mumbai-born Rushdie is granted a visa by the Indian government to visit his country of birth, triggering protests by Muslims.
– June 15, 2007: Rushdie is awarded a knighthood by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth for services to literature, prompted diplomatic protests from Pakistan and Iran and demonstrations in Pakistan and Malaysia.
– Jan 20, 2012: Rushdie cancels plans to attend a major literature festival in Jaipur, India, after protests from Indian Muslim groups.
– Sept 16, 2012: Iranian religious foundation raises its bounty for killing Rushdie to $3.3 million.
– Feb 22, 2016: Iranian state-run media outlets add $600,000 to a bounty for the killing of Rushdie.
– Aug 12, 2022: Rushdie is attacked on stage at a literary event in Chautauqua, western New York
Islamist terrorist Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old from New Jersey who stabbed Indian-born author Salman Rushdie in New York on Friday, has been charged with 'attempted murder in the second degree' and ‘assault in the second degree’.
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) August 13, 2022
Do you think Zubair did not know that he was condemning Nupur Sharma for life? Do you think he did not know that for the rest of her life, she would be hunted like Salman Rushdie was? You think he is not just as bad as Hadi Matar?
— Nupur J Sharma (@UnSubtleDesi) August 13, 2022
OMG.
Kuffars are never safe from ‘some fanatics’.
Long live Salman Rushdie.
Be safe Nupur. pic.twitter.com/jH0BnFarph— Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) August 13, 2022
A forced condemnation is never from the heart.
This is for all those in India who were mum on the brutal killings of Kanhaiya Lal and Umesh Kolhe & silently support 'Sar Tan Se Juda lobby', and now condemning the attack on author Salman Rushdie in the USA.
— Anshul Saxena (@AskAnshul) August 13, 2022
Like many of you, I'm thinking about Salman Rushdie now.
The threat he has lived under for so long–which was so horrifically realized today–was the product, not merely of the hatred and zeal of religious fanatics…
— Sam Harris (@SamHarrisOrg) August 13, 2022
Igarashi, a profound academician said in an interview that, “Scholars can’t be worried about what will happen to them as a result of their work”, as he became the world’s first Japanese translator of Rushdie’s book ‘The Satanic Verses’.
His death toll date remained unsolved. Former CIA analyst and national security members had believed that the Iranians were behind cold murder as it may have been provoked by the fatwa against Rushdie.
Speaking of Rushdie, the original author of the book ‘The Satanic Verses’ had to be airlifted to a local hospital on Friday after he was knifed on stage multiple times. He sustained critical injuries. The shocking incident has sent a wave of chill throughout the world.
The New York Police are yet to issue any statement regarding the motive of crime. However, they do believe the criminal might be Influenced by the fatwa issued by Iranian’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini calling out the death of Rushdie.
Although, there are no specific reasons to be found against the Japanese translator as he was found dead brutally in his office in University of Tsukuba on a night of July in 1991.
However, he had solid philology in Islamic studies and he had questioned openly various time about Western claim to freedom of expression and Islamist self-righteousness.
He was employed as a Assistant professor of a comparative Islamic culture at Tsukuba University and had widely composed his work on Islam. His body was found by a janitorial staff member the following morning.
Aside from translating Rushdie’s work, he also translated physician-philosopher Avicenna’s The Canon of Medicine, which was popularized as an encyclopedia of medicine.
On multiple occasions, the scholar was seen redefining Rushdie’s novel’s essence in one line with islamic mystical Sufi thought. He had also argued various times about Rushdie being not anti-Islamic.
The authorities had revealed that the scholar’s body was found with a deep knife wound in his neck and cuts on the hands and face. In a separate related incident, another translator, Ettore Capriolo was also the victim of assault.
The 61-year-old Italian translator of ‘The Satanic Verses’ was also assaulted by a knife attack and had sustained critical injuries on his neck, chest and hands. However, he survived the attack.
He described his assailant to have been of an Iranian ethnicity. However, days later the Italian law enforcement ruled out any connection whatsoever with the assault to Rushdie’s book, ‘The Satanic Verses’.
Speaking of a similar incident, another Norwegian translator William Nygaard also became the victim of the fatwa as a result of a respective translation of the book.