Rushdie says freedom of expression in West at critical juncture | Author was attacked in New York

Author Salman Rushdie has warned that freedom of expression in the West is under its most severe threat in his lifetime. 75-year-old Rushdie looked thinner than before the attack and wore glasses with one tinted lens. He was blinded in his right eye and suffered nerve damage to his hand when he was attacked at a literary festival in new york state in August. Rushdie spent years in hiding with police protection after Iran’s grand ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989. The 1989 edict called for his death over the alleged blasphemy of the novel - the satanic verses. He gradually returned to public life after the Iranian government distanced itself from the order in 1998, saying it would not back any effort to kill Rushdie. Rushdie won the booker prize in 1981 for his novel - midnight's Children; and in 2008, was voted the best-ever winner of the prestigious fiction prize. His most recent novel - victory city - completed a month before the attack, was published in February.