Why Salman Rushdie stabbing renewed fears for Nupur Sharma’s safety

Salman Rushdie, the acclaimed but controversial Mumbai-born author, was stabbed on stage at the Chautauqua Institution, New York. Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old New Jersey resident, was identified as the assailant and taken into custody. His now-defunct social media profiles show him to be sympathetic towards Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, who issued a fatwa against the 75-year-old Booker Prize winner in 1989, after The Satanic Verses came out, which Muslims claimed disparaged Prophet Mohammad. 

The attack has renewed fears among Indians for the safety of Bharatiya Janata Party’s Nupur Sharma, whose own statements on the Prophet, on live television, led to a furore in the Muslim world and its consequences have been seen in a spate of killings and violence across the country, since then. 

Vijay Patel, a self-proclaimed “proud Hindu” pointed out “Salman Rushdie wrote satanic verses in 1988 and stabbed in 2022 for it! That too in the USA”, before drawing attention to Sharma’s situation. 

Another Twitter user commented that what happened to Rushdie is what Sharma and her family have to “fear every single day of their lives”. 

Shubhangi Sharma of Network18 said, “Those who justified and fueled the witch-hunt against Nupur Sharma cannot pose as “liberals” now and shed tears for Salman Rushdie. Nupur was thrown in the exact same ditch that Rushdie was 34 years ago. Nothing has changed since then.”

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Meanwhile, Sunanda Vashist shared the news of Rushdie’s stabbing along with an ANI report of Muhammad Nadeem being tasked by the Jaish-e-Mohammad to kill Nupur Sharma. He noted, “Nupur Sharma will never be able to lead a normal life ever again”. 

Another Twitter user said, “Salman Rushdie wrote The Satanic Verses in 1988. He moved to another continent and lived with heavy security for a significant part of his life. They still got him, 34 years later”, and added, “This is the savagery that has been unleased on Nupur Sharma. For uttering some words on a TV show.” 

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While the US condemned Sharma’s remarks on Prophet Mohammad, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said of the Rushdie stabbing, “The attack on Salman Rushdie is appalling. We’re all praying for his speedy recovery. And we’re thankful to good citizens and first responders for helping him so swiftly.”