Iranian media is celebrating after New York state author Salman Rushdie was stabbed on stage during a speech..Supporters of the country’s religious leadership hailed Friday’s attack, which has left Rushdie on a ventilator..Rushdie was reportedly stabbed in the neck before he was set to speak in Chautauqua, New York.Witnesses said a man stormed the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and began stabbing Rushdie, 75, in the neck as he was being introduced. The novelist fell to the floor and the perpetrator was detained.Rushdie's agent told The Times Of Israel, Rushdie was hooked up to a ventilator and may lose an eye due to the assault, in which a suspected Shia extremist.."Rushdie has been living under threat since Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious decree, calling to kill the author over his 1988 book 'The Satanic Verses,' which some Muslims considered as disrespectful of the Prophet Mohammed," The Times Of Israel said..Iran’s current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the fatwa was “fired like a bullet that won’t rest until it hits its target” which was widely on social media..“This deserves congratulation: God willing, we will celebrate Salman Rushdie going to hell soon,” conservative pundit Keyvan Saedy was quoted as tweeting, The Times Of Israel reported..Other conservative commentators in Iran and accounts affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also praised the attack on Rushdie, The New York Times reported.Iranian ultra-conservative newspaper Kayhan on Saturday hailed the assailant who attacked Rushdie.“Let us kiss the hands of the one who tore the neck of the enemy of God with a knife,” the newspaper said.“Bravo to this courageous and duty-conscious man who attacked the apostate and depraved Salman Rushdie in New York,” wrote the paper, whose chief is appointed by Khamenei The Times Of Israel reported.-With files from Matthew Horwood
