Scottish police said they were investigating reports of an “internet threat” directed at JK Rowling. It appeared after the British writer posted on social media in which she referred to the attack on the writer Salman Rushdie.
The author of the Harry Potter books tweeted that she “felt very bad” after reading the news about the attack on Rushdie. JW Rowling also expressed the hope that Rushdie “will be all right”. One Twitter user wrote back in one of his numerous comments, “don’t worry, you’re next.”
Rowling shared on Twitter a screenshot of her post and the threatening response to her address. She also wrote: “To everyone sending supporting messages: thank you, the police are involved.”
The Reuters agency quoted a spokeswoman for the Scottish police who said officers were investigating an “Internet threat”.
Stabbed in the neck
Salam Rushdie, 75, British Indian-born writer, was due to deliver a lecture on artistic freedom Friday at the Chautauqua Institution in New York State. At one point, an attacker entered the scene several times stabbed the scribe in the neck. The perpetrator, 24-year-old Hadi Matar, was arrested by the policemen securing the event, while the writer was transported by helicopter to the hospital.
Writer’s agent Andrew Wylie reported Friday night that Rushdie was in hospital after hours of surgery. – The news is not good. Salman will likely lose one eye. The nerves in his arm were cut and his liver was damaged, he said.
On Saturday, however, information came from the hospital that Rushdie’s health had improved so much that he was disconnected from the ventilator. However, the writer will probably lose an eye. According to the writer’s agent, Rushdie has already “talked and joked”.
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Living in hiding
Salman Rushdie’s book “The Satanic Verses” was banned in Iran in 1988 because many Muslims consider it blasphemous. For this reason, he was repeatedly threatened with death. Rushdie is officially charged with a fatwa (a kind of curse in Islam) that orders any faithful Muslim to kill the person affected by the decision. The writer had to live in hiding under the constant protection of the police.
In 1998, the then government of Iran announced that it was ceasing to support the fatwa, which in recent years allowed the writer to return to a more normal life. Fatwa, however, has never been canceled. Many translators of his books fell victim to attacks, and one of them, the Japanese Hitoshi Igarashi, was killed in 1991 from dagger wounds.
Main photo source: Doug Peters / PA / PAP