#SalmanRushdie just attacked onstage at @chq@NBCNews@[email protected]/I1XT6AmkhKHundreds of people in the audience gasped at the sight of the attack and were then evacuated. Rushdie was at the event to discuss «the United States as asylum for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creative expression,» according to the Chautauqua Institution.Rushdie's book, has been banned in Iran since 1988, as many Muslims consider it to be blasphemous.