Rushdie attacker says ‘surprised’ author survived
The New Jersey man accused of stabbing writer Salman Rushdie told the New York Post in an interview published on Wednesday that he turned into “amazed” the writer had survived the attack.
“When I heard he survived, I was amazed, I wager,” Hadi Matar, 24, advised the tabloid, which said they held a video interview with the jailed suspect.
The suspected assailant, who has pleaded not responsible to tried murder prices, did no longer say whether or not he become inspired by means of the 1989 edict, or fatwa, issued underneath Iran’s former best chief Ayatollah Khomeini, that ordered Muslims to kill the writer for what he deemed the blasphemous nature of the ebook “The Satanic Verses.”
“I admire the ayatollah. I suppose he is a exquisite person. That’s as far as I will say about that,” stated Matar, who in line with the Post become cautioned by way of his attorney not to speak about the issue.
Matar informed the paper he had “read a couple pages” of Rushdie’s novel.
“I don’t like the character. I don’t suppose he’s a excellent individual,” he stated of the writer. “I don’t like him. I do not like him very a lot.”
“He’s someone who attacked Islam, he attacked their ideals, the notion systems.”Matar stated he was no longer in contact with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. He stated he had discovered Rushdie would talk at the Chautauqua Institution’s literary collection via a tweet in advance this yr.
He informed the Post he had taken a bus to Buffalo at some point prior to the assault, earlier than taking a Lyft to Chautauqua.
“I turned into striking around quite tons. Not doing something in particular, just walking around,” he told the paper. “I was simply out of doors the complete time.”
Last Friday as Rushdie was set to deliver a communicate as a part of a lecture series, a man stormed the level and stabbed him several instances within the neck and abdomen.
Rushdie become airlifted to a nearby health center, in which he underwent emergency surgical procedure for existence-threatening injuries.
The 75-12 months-old’s circumstance remains severe but he turned into taken off a ventilator, and has shown signs of improvement.
Matar instructed the Post he had watched YouTube videos of Rushdie speaking, and called the writer “disingenuous.”
On Monday, Matar’s mother, Lebanese-born Silvana Fardos of Fairview, New Jersey, defined Matar as “a moody introvert” who became increasingly fixated on Islam after touring Lebanon to see his estranged father, in an interview with Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper.
