He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University in 2015. He was named Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Since 2000, Rushdie has lived in the United States. In 2008, The Times ranked him thirteenth on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.
In June 2007, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him for his services to literature. He was appointed Commandeur de l' Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in January 1999. In 1983, Rushdie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the UK's senior literary organisation.
The British government put Rushdie under police protection. Death threats were made against him, including a fatwā calling for his assassination issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who was then the Supreme Leader of Iran, on 14 February 1989. His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), was the subject of a major controversy, provoking protests from Muslims in several countries. His second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize. His work, combining magical realism with historical fiction, is primarily concerned with the many connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, with much of his fiction being set on the Indian subcontinent. Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie FRSL ( Hindi: अहमद सलमान रुश्दी, Urdu: احمد سلمان رشدی born June 19, 1947) is a British-American novelist and essayist of Indian descent.