In an interview released Wednesday, the New Jersey man accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie said he was “surprised” the author had survived the attack.
“When I learned he survived, I guess I was startled,” Hadi Matar, 24, told the newspaper, which claimed they conducted a video conversation with the detained suspect.
The suspected assailant, who has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder charges, has not stated whether he was inspired by the 1989 fatwa issued by Iran’s former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which ordered Muslims to kill the writer for what he considered the blasphemous nature of the book “The Satanic Verses.”
“I admire the Ayatollah. He strikes me as a wonderful individual. That’s all I’m going to say about it “According to the Post, Matar’s lawyer told him not to address the topic.
Matar admitted to the newspaper that he had “read a couple pages” of Rushdie’s novel.
“I don’t like the individual. I don’t think he’s a kind guy “He was speaking of the author. “He irritates me. I don’t care for him.”
“He is someone who has made derogatory remarks about Islam, its beliefs, and their belief systems.”
Matar stated that he was not in communication with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. He said he found out Rushdie will be speaking at the Chautauqua Institution’s literary series through a tweet earlier this year.
He told the Post that the day before the incident, he took a bus to Buffalo and then a Lyft to Chautauqua.
A guy seized the stage last Friday, as Rushdie was about to make a discussion as part of a lecture series, and stabbed him several times in the neck and abdomen.
Rushdie was evacuated to a nearby hospital, where he received life-saving surgery.
The 75-year-condition old’s remains critical, but he has been taken off a ventilator and appears to be improving.
Matar told the Post that he had seen YouTube footage of Rushdie speaking and termed him “disingenuous.”
In an interview with Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper on Monday, Matar’s mother, Lebanese-born Silvana Fardos of Fairview, New Jersey, described her son as “a melancholy introvert” who got increasingly hooked with Islam after visiting Lebanon to meet his divorced father.
He is due to appear in court on Friday.
