Salman Rushdie, famous for his blasphemous views about Islam, was attacked on Friday before a scheduled lecture in western New York on Friday.

Police said Rushdie, 75, was apparently stabbed in the neck after an assailant attacked him and an interviewer. An Associated Press reporter witnessed a man storm the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and begin punching or stabbing Rushdie as he was being introduced. The author was taken or fell to the floor, and the man was restrained.

Rushdie was stabbed by a 24-year-old New Jersey man. Police said the motive was unclear. 

The assailant stabbed him in the abdomen and the neck, the police and witnesses said. 

Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, sent an update on his condition shortly before 7 p.m. on Friday, saying Rushdie was on a ventilator and could not speak. “The news is not good," he said. "Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed, and his liver was stabbed and damaged."

Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses," one of the most divisive works in recent literary history, instantly sparked violent and irate protests all around the world. The book was released in September 1988.

The book has been prohibited in Iran, India, Bangladesh, Sudan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Thailand, Tanzania, Indonesia, Singapore, Venezuela, and Pakistan.

Rushdie referred to Prophet Muhammad in his book as "Mahound," a disparaging epithet given to the Prophet by early crusaders that meant "devil" or "false prophet."

In 1990, he issued a statement claiming he had renewed his Muslim faith, repudiated the attacks on Islam made by characters in his novel, and was committed to working for better understanding of the religion around the world in the "hope that it would reduce the threat of Muslims acting on the fatwa to kill him." Rushdie later admitted that he was "pretending."

The British-Indian author, who currently lives in the United States, had been previously put under police protection because of threats to his life. The UK knighted him in 2007, which sparked protests in several countries in the Muslim world. 

Many countries with Muslim majorities denounced his knighthood. Several of these countries' parliaments criticized the action, and Iran and Pakistan summoned their British envoys to protest publicly.

Some non-Muslims were disappointed by Rushdie's knighthood, stating that the writer did not deserve the honor and that there were other writers who deserved it more than Rushdie. 

Norman Tebbit, the former chairman of the Conservative Party from 1985 to 1987, described Rushdie as a “outstanding villain” whose “public life has been a record of terrible deeds of betrayal of his childhood, faith, adoptive home, and nationality.”