After stabbing the renowned Indian-born author on stage at a New York event, the attacker claimed he was “surprised” to learn that Rushdie was still alive.
According to the dpa news agency, Hadi Matar, 24, claimed Rushdie, 75, was “someone who attacked Islam,” but he did not confirm that his actions were motivated by an Iranian fatwa that was issued in the 1980s.
Matar, who was charged with the assault but entered a not guilty plea through his attorney, is currently being held at the Chautauqua County Jail in New York.
On Friday, he is scheduled to make another court appearance. In a video interview from behind bars, he said: “I guess I was surprised to hear he survived. After seeing a tweet announcing Rushdie’s appearance, Matar claimed that he had initially intended to attend the event at the Chautauqua Institution.
The person is not someone I like. He is not someone I would consider to be very good. He is not very appealing to me. He is a critic of Islam, their beliefs, and their philosophical framework.
Rushdie’s well-known book “The Satanic Verses” was released in 1988, and the Iranian Supreme Leader at the time, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, responded by issuing a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s execution, in 1989. However, Matar told the New York Post that he had only read “a couple of pages” and he had not been inspired by the fatwa.
The Ayatollah is respected by me. He is a great person in my opinion. I’ll stop there,” he said when asked how much more he would say.
This occurs as the event moderator expressed concern for the writer “both for himself and for what he means in the world.”
The novelist has kept his “usual feisty and defiant sense of humour” even after his “life-changing” injuries, according to his family. The author was taken off a ventilator on August 13 despite having a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye.
