Salman Rushdie Claims He Had a ‘Premonition’ of Being Knifed Days Before the Knife Attack in 2022

World-renowned author Salman Rushdie has revealed whimsical details of the eerie premonition of the knife attack back in 2022. In an exclusive word with CBS' 60 Minutes which is also his first television interview since the incident in August 2022, the India-born novelist opened up to Anderson Cooper that he had experienced dreams of being attacked in an amphitheater before attending the Chautauqua Institution in New York, where he was stabbed shortly before delivering a lecture.

Rushdie spilled the beans saying, "I said to my wife, Eliza, ‘I don’t want to go’ because of the dream. And then I thought, ‘Don’t be silly, it’s a dream.'" recounting how his eye hung out of its socket "like a soft-boiled egg" and expressing the ongoing emotional impact of losing sight in it. A well-known author of his generation, Rushdie has been facing persistent death threats since he published his novel The Satanic Verses in 1988. The book delves into a contentious narrative from early Islamic tradition, suggesting that Satan momentarily disrupted the divine revelations to Prophet Mohammed. 

Following the book's publication, violent events were marked across the globe. The Japanese translator of the book was murdered, and demonstrations in Mumbai and Islamabad led to the deaths of at least 18 people, as reported by Reuters. "I had no idea (it would cause violence). I thought maybe some conservative religious people wouldn’t like it but they don’t like anything I wrote anyway so I thought they don’t have to read it. (It was) probably (naïve)," he told BBC. "It’s easy looking back but nothing like this had ever happened to anybody and of course, almost all the people who attacked the book did so without reading it," the author added. 

Rushdie has written a memoir detailing the 2022 attack and his recovery process, initially hesitant about the project but ultimately felt compelled to share his experience. Titled Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, the memoir is out now. Hadi Matar, the individual accused of stabbing Rushdie and another individual on stage, entered a plea of not guilty to charges of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault. Matar's trial, initially set for January 8, was postponed earlier that month upon request, as confirmed by his attorney Nathaniel Barone to CNN. Barone clarified that Rushdie's forthcoming memoir did not factor into the trial delay.

However, he emphasized that under New York State Criminal Procedure Law, the Defense is entitled to all information related to the creation and release of the book. "It felt like something coming out of the distant past and trying to drag me back in time, if you like, back into that distant past, in order to kill me," Rushdie said as he recalled the horrors of the moment he saw the assailant charging towards him with the knife.