A host who was about to interview Salman Rushdie was attacked on stage by a mad knifeman. He revealed the grievous injuries he suffered while trying to defend the stabbed novelist.
Henry Reese, 73, blacked out when he told the BBClate Tuesday about last Friday's attack on Chautauqua Research Institute, about 55 miles south of Buffalo.
As well as the deep bruises that made his eyes pop, he also broke into the stage and stabbed Rushdie repeatedly while holding the leg of the man.
"I am doing well. Everything is going well. I am doing very well," he told the British broadcaster from his home in Pittsburgh.
"Our concern is Saruman," he said of the "Satanic Verses" writer who was initially put on a respirator and could lose an eye.
"And it's certainly not just for himself, but what he means to the world. And he matters to the world," Reese said of the writer.
Reese was selected to host an interview with Rushdie — who has lived in hiding for years after Iran put a bounty on his head. Rushdie — Asylum, an organization that supports a persecuted writer for his own work with the city.
The pair remained calm and chatted when an attacker burst onto the stage and stabbed Rushdie in the neck three times and his abdomen four times, injuring his chest, right thigh and right eye. had not started.
"Our mission is to protect writers in the sanctuary, and to see Salman Rushdie beaten for his life would be unimaginable... before your very eyes. "It's hard to explain what it's like to see that happen in ," Reese told the BBC.
There is nothing crisp," he said.
The soft-spoken host told The Atlantic that he sustained a knife wound when he pinned down Rushdie's attacker's leg. Hadi Matar, a 1-year-old New Jersey male.
"This is a very bold attack on the core values of freedom and ways of resolving differences other than violence, using art, literature and journalism," Reese wrote in the magazine.
"Personally, it gave me a very instinctive, instant connection. For Salman, it probably never went away in the depths of his mind, but now is permanently captured in a physical way,” he said.
"It would be my ideal to see it come to fruition and never be hindered from what we are trying to do." It's about showing that these values are both upheld and upheld," he said.
Rushdie has been receiving death threats since the late 1980s after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his death for his book Satanic Verse. was targeted.
The suspected attacker, Matar, had previously posted on his social media in support of Iran and its Revolutionary Guard. He was also reportedly in touch with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on social media.
He has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges.
Iranian officials denied involvement in Tehran on Monday Rushdie stabbed, but tried to justify the attack.
"For the attack on Salman Rushdie in the United States, I do not believe that anyone, except (Rushdie) himself and his supporters, is condemned, condemned, or deserving of condemnation," said Iran's foreign ministry. Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said.
Rushdie is now on the road to recovery,again "clearly"- and his "The Satanic Verses" is multiple of his Amazon bestsellers. has jumped to the top of the list for
