‘A Taliban-Like State’: Salman Rushdie Chides ‘Progressives’ Calling For a Palestinian State With Hamas Still in Power

AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi

Renowned author Salman Rushdie spoke with the German tabloid Bild over the weekend and lamented the “quantity of innocent death” in Gaza, but also chided progressives in the West for embracing Hamas and a Palestine that would be “a Taliban-like state.”

The author who is promoting his new book “Knife” about the 2022 attack that almost took his life spoke somberly when asked about the Israel-Hamas war. “Any human being right now has to be distressed by what is happening in Gaza. Because of the quantity of innocent death. I would just like some of the protests to mention Hamas,” Rushdie began, adding:

Because that’s where this started. And Hamas is a terrorist organization, you know, and it’s very strange for young progressive student, for politics to kind of support a fascist terrorist group because, you know, they’re talking about free Palestine. I mean, I’ve somebody who has argued for a Palestinian state for most of my life, I mean, since the 1980s, probably right now, if there was a Palestinian state, it would be run by Hamas, and that would make it a Taliban-like state, you know, and it would be a client state of Iran.

And is that what the progressive movements of the Western left wish to create? To have another Taliban, another Ayatollah-like state in the Middle East, right next to Israel? So I feel that there’s not a lot of deep thought happening. You know, there’s an emotional reaction to the death in, in, in, in Gaza. And that’s absolutely right. And, but when it slides over towards anti-Semitism and sometimes actual support of Hamas, then it’s very problematic.

Rushdie lost sight in one eye after the brutal attack in August of 2022 when Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old Shi’ite Muslim from New Jersey, rushed the stage and stabbed him 15 times. Rushdie was speaking at an event about the importance of free speech following his many years in hiding after Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini called for his death for writing “The Satanic Verses.”

VIDEO 🔴:

Acclaimed novelist @SalmanRushdie to the German tabloid @BILD:

“If there was a Palestinian state, it would be run by Hamas, and that would make it a Taliban like state. …and it would be a client state of Iran. Is that what the progressive movement of the western left… pic.twitter.com/nfaO5wvUfm

— David Saranga (@DavidSaranga) May 19, 2024

Watch the clip above.