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Rushdie talked in the interview with Germany's Stern magazine
about the threats he sees to U.S. democracy. He also called
himself an optimist, and noted that the fatwa, a religious edict
issued in Iran in 1989 that called on Muslims around the world
to kill him for blasphemy, was pronounced long ago.
The interview is due to appear in the magazine on Aug. 18, but
Stern released it on Saturday, a day after the attack on
Rushdie. The interview was conducted about two weeks ago, the
magazine's editorial office said.
The leader of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, the late Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, issued the fatwa after Rushdie's novel "The
Satanic Verses" book was condemned as blasphemous. He went into
hiding for nearly a decade but in recent years has lived
relatively openly.
Indian-born Rushdie, who became a U.S. citizen in 2016 and lives
in New York City, said he was worried about threats to democracy
in the United States.
These were driven by racism and hatred of the accomplishments of
liberalism, and constituted "a preliminary stage of fascism," he
said.
"(Former U.S. President Donald) Trump's victory over truth is
most important there. His people believe that they are lied to
by the others, not by him," he said.
Trump claims falsely that the November 2020 presidential
election that he lost to Joe Biden was stolen through widespread
voting fraud.
Asked whether he was nostalgic, Rushdie, 75, said, "Not
necessarily. I love history, but when it concerns my own life, I
prefer to look ahead."
New York police have identified the suspect in the attack on
Rushdie as Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old man from Fairview, New
Jersey, who had bought a pass to the event at the Chautauqua
Institution. Police have not established a motive.
(Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Frances Kerry)
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