The suspect, who was arrested shortly after the stabbing incident, recently lived in Fairview, New Jersey. On social media, Hadi Matar is said to support extremism, as well as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, according to the initial findings of the police investigation. A direct link between the suspect and Iran’s elite military corps is unknown.
The suspect’s father is said to be from Lebanon. According to the mayor of the southern Lebanese town of Yaroun, the father is from there. Matar’s parents, he said, moved to the United States at some point. The suspect was born in California and would also have grown up in the US.
Rushdie, 75, was stabbed Friday during a lecture in Chautauqua, New York. He is on a ventilator and is likely to lose an eye, his literary agent reported. He also said nerves in the arm were severely damaged. Rushdie was also stabbed in the liver.
Threats
Rushdie has faced threats since 1988 because of his book The Satanic Verses, which many Muslims consider blasphemous.
Whether Rushdie was injured because of his novel is not yet clear. The publication of the controversial book led to protests in Iran in the 1980s. The then ruler of that country, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, pronounced a ‘fatwa’ against the author, a death sentence.