The man charged with stabbing Salman Rushdie on a lecture stage in western New York mentioned in an interview that he was shocked to study the achieved creator had survived the assault.
Speaking to the New York Post from jail, Hadi Matar mentioned he determined to see Rushdie on the Chautauqua Institution after he noticed a tweet final winter concerning the author’s deliberate look.
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“I don’t like the person. I don’t think he’s a very good person,” Matar informed the newspaper. “He’s someone who attacked Islam. He attacked their beliefs, the belief systems.”
Matar, 24, mentioned he thought-about late Iranian chief Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini “a great person” however wouldn’t say whether or not he was following a fatwa, or edict, issued by Khomeini in Iran in 1989 that known as for Rushdie’s loss of life after the creator printed “The Satanic Verses.”
Iran has denied involvement within the assault. Matar, who lives in Fairview, New Jersey, mentioned he hadn’t had any contact with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. He informed the Post he had solely learn “a couple pages” of “The Satanic Verses.”
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Rushdie, 75, suffered a broken liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye fixed, in keeping with his agent, within the assault Friday. His agent, Andrew Wylie, mentioned his situation has improved and he’s on the highway to restoration.
Matar, who’s charged with tried homicide and assault, informed the Post he took a bus to Buffalo the day earlier than the assault after which took a Lyft to Chautauqua, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) away.
He purchased a go to the Chautauqua Institution grounds after which slept within the grass the night time earlier than Rushdie’s deliberate discuss.
Matar was born within the US however holds twin citizenship in Lebanon, the place his dad and mom have been born. His mom has informed reporters in interviews that Matar got here again modified from a go to to see his father in Lebanon in 2018. After that, he grew to become moody and withdrew from his household, she mentioned.
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