Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the neck during an event in New York

The assailant Hadi Matar has been charged with attempted murder

Author Salman Rushdie, whose writing led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s

 a 24-year-old from New Jersey, stabbed the author in the neck at a literary event in western New York on Friday, August 12

Rushdie was put on a ventilator after hours of surgery and the nerves in his arms were severed

 Rushdie's liver was stabbed and damaged, his book agent, Andrew Wylie, told the media

The attack on Rushdie comes more than 30 years after Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

 edict, calling for Rushdie’s death over his book 'The Satanic Verses'

The book has been banned in Iran since 1988, as many Muslims consider it to be blasphemous

As the world condemned the attack on Rushdie, several hardline Iranian newspapers poured praise on Hadi Matar