U.K. investigates threats against J.K. Rowling over Rushdie support
British authorities said Sunday they had launched an investigation into online threats against Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling following her expression of support for novelist Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed and seriously injured last week, The New York Times reports.
Shortly after Rushdie was attacked as he prepared to speak at the Chautauqua Institution in New York, Rowling tweeted: "Horrifying news … Let him be OK." The Twitter user @MeerAsifAziz1 replied: "Don't worry you are next." The tweet was deleted by Sunday afternoon but the account remained active.
Rowling slammed Twitter for letting the user remain on the platform despite its rules against encouraging violence. Rushdie spent years in hiding starting in 1989 after Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urged Muslims to kill him over his novel The Satanic Verses.
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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
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