The man accused of trying to kill the writer Salman Rushdie in New York he disliked him for having “attacked Islam” but denied being in contact with Iran or having read his entire book “The Satanic Verses,” he said in an interview with The New York Post published Wednesday.
(Also read: Iran denies responsibility for attack on Rushdie and blames himself)
The 75-year-old writer, against whom Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his assassination in 1989, was stabbed 10 times during a public literary event by Hadhi Matar24, born in the US and considered by experts on Islamic radicalism to be a sympathizer of Iran and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
In the brief interview that The New York Post did with the defendant, who is being held in a jail in Chautauqua (upstate New York), he expressed surprise that Rushdie had survived his attack and avoided, on the advice of his lawyer, declaring whether he was inspired by the Ayatollah’s fatwa, although he made clear his sympathy for the former Iranian leader.
“I respect the Ayatollah. I think he is a great person. That is all I will say on the matter,” said the prisoner, who denied having any contact with Iran or with the regime’s hard wing.
(You can read: Salman Rushdie shows slight improvement and is no longer connected to a respirator)
Of the book that led Khomeini to issue the assassination order more than three decades ago, Matar added: “I’ve read a couple of pages. I haven’t read the whole thing from cover to cover.”
Instead, he claimed to have spent time watching his videos on YouTube: “I saw a lot of talk. I don’t like people that are fake.”
He added that he found out about the event Rushdie was participating in when he saw an ad online months ago, and expressed his dislike for him with repeated phrases such as “I don’t like him” and “he is someone who has attacked Islam, attacked his beliefs, their faith system.
(Also: Salman Rushdie: accused of attempted murder of the writer’s alleged aggressor)
About the attacker, the son of Lebanese immigrants, more details have been known in an article in The New York Times that collects statements from his acquaintances describing him as lonely, isolated and quiet, and from his mother, who says that in 2018 he returned from a trip to the Middle East very focused on being a faithful follower of Islam and who assures that he does not want to know more about it.
Rushdie remains in serious condition at a Pennsylvania hospital and details about his health have been scant, but his son has said he no longer needs assisted breathing and was reported to be “eloquent” when interviewed by police officers on Tuesday.
*With information from EFE
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