Censorship in America today comes from the left and the right, Salman Rushdie told 60 Minutes. first major television interview since attacked at the literary festival in 2022. The author spoke to the broadcast in April ahead of the publication of the new book, “Knife,” a deeply personal exploration of near-death experiences.
“There seems to be a kind of orthodoxy growing up, especially among young people, that censorship … is a good thing,” Rushdie told correspondent Anderson Cooper.
The acclaimed author says the attack on free expression is now coming from a different direction. Previously, he explained, conservative voices were the ones calling for books to be banned, including those that discussed the role of race in history. But now, according to Rushdie, people on the left seem to be calling for restrictions on free speech.
“What’s different now is that it’s also from a progressive voice,” he said. “There are progressive voices that say certain types of speech should not be allowed because they offend this or that vulnerable group.”
Rushdie said that when speech is suppressed, the first people to be affected are often minority groups.
“To support censorship in theory on behalf of vulnerable groups is a slippery slope,” Rushdie said. “It can lead to the opposite of what you want.”
Censorship is a subject the acclaimed novelist is familiar with. In 1989, Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, a religious decree, against Rushdie ordering all Muslims to kill him. The controversy stems from the novel “The Satanic Verses”, which depicts a representation of a character likened to the Prophet Muhammad that the Ayatollah considers “insulting”.
In 1990, 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace went to a secret location in London to speak with Rushdie, who was in hiding. At the time, Rushdie was optimistic that he could reconcile with his critics.
“In this country I don’t believe there are so many people, actually, who are so anxious to do me harm,” Rushdie said at the time. “I don’t believe that in the United States either.”
Despite his optimism, he would remain in hiding for nearly nine more years after that interview.
In 1998, the Iranian regime said it did not support the fatwa to kill Rushdie, but threats against the author continued.
On an August day almost two years ago, Rushdie was on stage at a literary festival in Chautauqua, New York, preparing to speak about the importance of protecting writers whose lives are under threat. A man with a knife ran up to the stage and stabbed him several times in the face, neck, chest, and torso.
The attacker was a 24-year-old Muslim man from New Jersey who said he had only read a few pages of “The Satanic Verses” and seen some clips of the author on YouTube. But it was enough for him to feel that Rushdie had “attacked Islam”.
In an interview with 60 Minutes, the author said there is value in listening to offensive voices because they challenge people.
“There is now an industry of transgression,” Rushdie explained. “Offence has become an aspect of identity politics. And in my opinion, books are very easy to stop offending you. You just close.”
At his core, Rushdie was a writer. He says he doesn’t like people who only know him from threats on his life – not story time.
“My desire to be a writer has everything to do with my love for the power of imagination, imagining worlds, creating worlds for readers and for imagination,” he said. “And I want them not to be obscured by the shadow of this event.”
If the attack on his life is successful, Rushdie says that being a writer is how he wants to be remembered.
“I have a bookshelf,” he said. “That’s what I want people to see. And I hope some of them can endure.”
The video above was originally published on April 14, 2024. It was produced by Brit McCandless Farmer and edited by Scott Rosann.
