Author Salman Rushdie has said that if a Palestinian state is established today, it would be a “Taliban-like state” government by Hamas. Mr Rushdie made the comment during a literary festival in Germany where he presented his new book ‘Knife‘, which recounts the stabbing attack on the author in 2022. The novelist also criticised the anti-Israel student protests, saying in an interview with German television programme RBB24 that it was “strange” that progressive youth would support Hamas, which he called a “fascist terrorist group”.
Mr Rushdie said he has long supported a Palestinian state but warned it would become an authoritarian regime like Afghanistan.
“Is this what the progressive movements of the Western Left want to create?” he further said.
Mr Rushdie, who met German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday, said he understood concerns over the suffering in Gaza but added: “I would like some protesters to mention the role of Hamas, and that’s a terrorist organisation. It’s quite strange that political progressives support a fascist terrorist group.”
The 76-year-old said he understands that the protests have been launched as emotional reaction to Palestinian deaths, “but when it slides into antisemitism and sometimes even support for Hamas, then it becomes problematic”. Mr Rushdie said the protesters should at least hold Hamas responsible for the war.
The India-born author, a naturalised American based in New York, has faced death threats since his 1988 novel ‘The Satanic Verses‘ was declared blasphemous by Iran’s supreme leader, making Mr Rushdie a global symbol of free speech.
The atheist author, whose parents were non-practicing Muslims, was forced to go underground. He was granted police protection in Britain, following the murder or attempted murder of his translators and publishers, and moved repeatedly while in hiding.
Mr Rushdie only began to emerge from his life on the run in the late 1990s after Iran said it would not support his assassination.
In August 2022, Mr Rushdie was on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in New York when he was stabbed up to 10 times by the accused Hadi Matar, leaving him blind in one eye.
