Salman Rushdie stabbing "horrific" says Dutch justice minister

Dutch politicians are shocked at the news that the well-known writer Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the United States. Prime Minister Mark Rutte spoke of a "terrible attack" on the author. "What we always feared has happened: stabbed while exercising his fundamental right to freedom of expression," the prime minister said.

"How horrific," said Justice Minister Dilan Yesilgöz. "Unfortunately, despite all the measures, what everyone feared for years has come true," Yesilgöz said about the attack.

"My deepest sympathies for him and his family. What a blow to them, and the rest of the free world."

Other politicians also responded to the incident with surprise and dismay. JA21 frontwoman Annabel Nanninga called the attack "sick and miserable". She wrote on Twitter, "Let's hope he makes it."

Geert Wilders, the leader of the largest opposition party, PVV, called it "terrible."

SP leader Lilian Marijnissen also said she though what happened was "truly horrible and barbaric."

Ahmed Salman Rushdie, born in India in 1947 to a Muslim family, became globally known, and was notorious among radical Muslims, for his book The Satanic Verses. Islamists demonstrated en masse when it was published in 1988. A year later, the Shia ruler in Iran at the time, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa against Rushdie, banning the author from Iran and calling for his murder. Khomeini died several months later.

Rushdie, who was studying and living in England, went into hiding for ten years and received permanent protection from the British police. At least one attempt was made to kill him with a failed bomb attack.

Hitoshi Igarashi, who translated the book into Japanese, was stabbed to death in 1991 at his Tsukuba University office. Less than two weeks earlier, Ettore Capriolo was injured in a stabbing at his home in Milan. Capriolo translated Rushdie's novel into Italian. In 1993, William Nygaard, who published the book in Norway, was shot three times in Oslo. He survived the attack.

Arsonists tried to kill Turkish translator Aziz Nesin in 1993 in Sivas, Turkey. The offenders set fire to the Madimak Hotel, killing 37 people.