'I'm surprised' Rushdie is still alive, says stabbing suspect

When asked if he was inspired by the 1989 fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini calling for Rushdie's death, Matar said: I think he's a great guy'

Article Author:

The Telegraph

Josie Ensor

New York — Salman Rushdie's alleged attacker says he was 'surprised' that the author survived , "His two pages of the author's novel The Satanic Verses".

At the Chautauqua County Jail in western New York, Hadi Matar told the New York Post that the 75-year-old writer said he was still alive after being stabbed ten times. He said he couldn't believe it. chest, face and legs.

"I think I was surprised when I heard he survived," said Matter, 24, of New Jersey.

Asked if he was inspired by his 1989 fatwa published by Iran's then supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, Matar said that Rushdie's death over the controversial book asked and said: I think he is an amazing person.

"That's all I have to say about it," he added, citing his lawyer's warning. I did not read it from start to finish.”

The religious edict urging Muslims to kill the Indian-born British writer was issued because Khomeini was the prophet of the novel. for saying that the depiction of Muhammad was blasphemous.

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Matar, who has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges, said he had seen Rushdie's video on YouTube.

"I watched a lot of lectures," he told the Post. "I don't like people who are dishonest like that." The day before the attack at the Chautauqua Institution festival where he was scheduled to speak, he said he had traveled by bus from Buffalo and was sleeping on the lawn outside.

County District Attorney Jason Schmidt stressed during Mattar's arraignment that he took steps to "pre-plan" the case.

"This was a targeted, unprovoked, pre-planned attack on Mr. Rushdie," Schmidt said.

Rushdie is recovering after having his damaged liver and nerves in his arm amputated. He will most likely lose his eye. Nonetheless, he retained his "usual bubbly, rebellious sense of humor," his family said.

continued to complain about conditions in local prisons being held without. "A lot of the food they gave me is not allowed by my religion," he said.

He had a part-time job at a department store last year, but spent most of the last few months in his mother's basement in Fairview, New Jersey, "using the Internet and watching videos of his games." I was playing music and watching Netflix," he said.

Matar was born in the United States to Lebanese parents. His mother, Silvana Fardos, is a "sulky introvert" who stuck to Islam after her son visited her estranged father in Lebanon for a month in 2018. said there was. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. His social his media posted a photo of Iranian cleric and Qassem his General Soleimani who were killed in a US airstrike in 2020.

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