Scottish police are investigating online threats made against JK Rowling after the author condemned the attack on Salman Rushdie.
Key points:
- JK Rowling received threatening messages after tweeting her support of Salman Rushdie
- One user replied “you are next”
- Rushdie, 75, was stabbed at a lecture in New York
The Harry Potter creator tweeted that said she felt “very sick” after hearing the news and hoped the novelist would “be OK”.
A user replied “don’t worry you are next”.
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Rowling shared screenshots of the threatening tweet and said: “To all sending supportive messages: thank you police are involved (were already involved on other threats)”.
A spokeswoman for Scotland’s police said: “We have received a report of an online threat being made and officers are carrying out enquiries.”
Rushdie, 75, was stabbed at a lecture in New York on Saturday and suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye.
He remains in a critical condition, however his son Zafar Rushdie said his father’s “defiant sense of humor remains intact”.
Rushdie’s agent earlier confirmed the author was removed from a ventilator and is “on the road to recovery,” and able to talk and joke.
The attack was met with global shock and outrage, as well as praise for the Indian-born author who has weathered death threats and a US$3 million bounty on his head for three decades.
The Indian-born author’s 1988 book The Satanic Verses was considered blasphemous by many Muslims, and the book was banned in Iran, where the country’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death
His accused attacker Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty on Saturday to attempted murder and assault charges.
Reuters
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