00:01When I saw him, he was about halfway up.
00:05In dark clothing and he had a black COVID mask on.
00:10And he came at me.
00:16My body was dying.
00:19And it was taking me with it.
00:23Can you see me?
00:27Salman Rushdie's novel, The Satanic Verses, sees the Koran to enrich rather than to dictate how life should be lived.
00:35There's a blasphemous parody of the Prophet Muhammad.
00:37Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini is calling on Muslims to kill Rushdie and his publishers.
00:42This is my duty. I have to kill him.
00:44The author is now in hiding.
00:46One of the most important ways in which I have understood what happened to me is that it's a story
00:51in which hatred is finally overcome.
00:54By love.
00:55I love you so much.
01:03He is brilliant and kind and generous.
01:07And those things can't be taken away from him.
01:10The knife in the eye, that was the cruelest blow.
01:14But language was my knife.
01:16A knife I could use to fight back.
01:19A poem will not stop a bullet.
01:22But we are not helpless.
01:24We can sing the truth and name the liars.
01:28It's not just about me.
01:30It's about the ability to say your truth.
01:33The truth.
01:42Happy birthday!
01:44Is there a knife?
01:45It's just a knife.
01:46Is there a knife?
01:51We have one knife.
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