The attack took place during a lecture in New York state last week. The arrest of 24-year-old Hadi Matar followed shortly after. He tells the New York Post that he doesn’t think Rushdie is “a good person.” “He is someone who has attacked Islam.”
According to the newspaper, Matar did not want to say whether he was inspired by the now deceased Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In 1989, he issued a fatwa, a death sentence, against Rushdie for his novel The Devil’s Verses. This book is considered blasphemous by some Muslims. Rushdie went into hiding after many threats until the Iranian government withdrew from the fatwa in 1998.
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The suspect, who Ayatollah Khomeini describes as “a wonderful person”, says he has read a few pages of Rushdie’s controversial book. He is also said to have watched videos in which Rushdie gave lectures. In it Matar Rushdie came across as “insincere.”
Matar’s parents are from Lebanon, but he himself was born in the United States. His single mother has said in the media that her son was not raised religiously but may have been radicalized after visiting his father in Lebanon.