Israel has condemned the attempted murder of Mumbai-born author Salman Rushdie in upstate New York, calling it an attack on freedom and values and the result of "decades of incitement" by the extremist regime in Iran.
Rushdie, who faced Islamist death threats for years after writing "The Satanic Verses", was stabbed by a 24-year-old New Jersey resident identified as Hadi Matar, a US national of Lebanese origin, on stage on Friday while he was being introduced at a literary event of the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York.
"The attack on Salman Rushdie is an attack on our freedoms and values. It is the result of decades of incitement led by the extremist regime in Tehran. On behalf of the people of Israel, we wish him a full and speedy recovery," Israel's Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a tweet on Saturday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Idan Roll described the attempted murder on Rushdie as evidence of Tehran's "brutality and extremism".
"Yesterday's shocking attack on Salman Rushdie is further evidence of the brutality & extremism of the Iranian regime, which has gone after and persecuted freethinkers everywhere for decades," Roll tweeted.
"Iran is a threat to the free world", he emphasised.
Rushdie's agent Andrew Wylie confirmed on Saturday that he was taken off the ventilator, without offering further details.
As per media reports, Rushdie's suspected assailant, Hadi Matar, was born in the US, but his family is apparently from southern Lebanon, a stronghold of Iran-backed Shi'ite Islamist faction Hezbollah.
Rushdie, 75, was about to speak at the special Chautauqua Lecture Series event on Friday, exploring the theme of "More than Shelter" for a "discussion on the United States as an asylum for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creative expression".
Rushdie's fourth book The Satanic Verses, released in 1988, forced him into hiding for nine years.
The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini accused Rushdie of blasphemy over the book and in 1989 issued a fatwa against him, calling for his death.
Rushdie's writing has led to death threats from Iran, which has offered a USD 3 million reward for anyone who kills him.
