Belgian FM Lahbib condemns attack on British author Salman Rushdie

The foreign minister of Belgium, Hadja Lahbib on Friday has denounced the attack on British author Salman Rushdie, whose controversial book “The Satanic verses” made him the target of a fatwa by Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.

Lahbib took it to Twitter, “Violence against an author is intolerable and the attack on Salman Rushdie before his lecture is despicable. The free expression of thought, culture, artists and their works allows our societies to progress.”

Belgian foreign minister further added that, “We stand with him and his family.”

Rushdie (75) was stabbed in the neck on Friday by a man during a conference in New York state. He was preparing to give a lecture in an amphitheatre in Chautauqua, a town in northwestern New York State, near Lake Erie, which separates the United States from Canada.

Salman Rushdie remains on a ventilator following being attacked onstage during an event in western New York state on Friday morning.

The prominent author, Rushdie, whose writing led to death threats from Iran during the 1980s, was stabbed in the neck & torso as he was about to give a lecture in the Western region of New York.

Rushdie, 75, was rushed to surgery, and his spokesperson, Andrew Wylie, said in a statement early Friday evening that Salman was put on a ventilator & had suffered serious injuries: “The news is not good. Salman will likely lose 1 eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”