Belgian Foreign Minister condemns "despicable" attack on Salman Rushdie

Belgian Foreign Minister condemns "despicable" attack on Salman Rushdie
Credit: Belga

Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib on Friday condemned 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.

”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," Ms.Lahbib said in a tweet on Friday.

"We stand with him and his family," added the Belgian Foreign Minister.

Mr. 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 amphitheater in Chautauqua, a town in northwestern New York State, near Lake Erie, which separates the United States from Canada.


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