| More on this story from yesterday. |
Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, was arrested after he stormed the stage at the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York and allegedly stabbed the author multiple times, New York State Police said Friday.
Rushdie suffered stab wounds to the neck and abdomen, and remained in surgery at a nearby trauma center Friday evening, according to police.
Law enforcement sources told The Post that an initial investigation suggests Matar has made social media posts in support of Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
and its Revolutionary Guard, and in support of Shi’a extremism more broadly.
New York State Police, however, said that Matar’s motive remained unclear.
"We don’t have any indication of a motive at this time," Major Eugene J. Staniszewski told news hounds. He added that police believe Matar acted alone.
Regardless, the attack comes amid a slew of foiled Iranian plots on American soil, including a plot against former National Security Advisor John Bolton and an apparent attempt on the life of an Iranian-American journalist in Brooklyn.
Rushdie, 75, has been the subject of death threats from the Iranian regime since the late 1980s.
His 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses" was considered blasphemous by some Moslems, and led to Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issuing a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death in 1989.
In 1991, two translators involved in the book’s publication abroad were stabbed — one fatally.
By the late 90’s, the Iranian government said the fatwa would not be carried out.
But as recently as 2012 a semi-official religious organization inside Iran placed an over $3 million bounty on the author’s head, and in 2019 Khomeni’s successor was temporarily banned from twitter for calling for Rushdie’s death.
The author was stabbed ahead of a planned talk about "the United States as [an] asylum for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creative expression," according to the institution’s website.
Charges against Matar have not yet been announced.
Related:
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Salman Rushdie: 2019-08-25 Iran puts US think tank FDD on its target list.
Salman Rushdie: 2017-03-27 Extended Holiday or Obama in Exile - March 21, 2011
Salman Rushdie: 2019-08-28 Sri Lankan Islamic clerics seek clarity on face veil ban
Salman Rushdie: 2019-08-25 Iran puts US think tank FDD on its target list.
Salman Rushdie: 2017-03-27 Extended Holiday or Obama in Exile - March 21, 2011
Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, sent an update on his condition to NYT, saying Rushdie was on a ventilator and could not speak. “The news is not good," he said. "Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged."
— Josie Ensor (@Josiensor) August 12, 2022
| Courtesy of Skidmark: |
- Salman Rushdie, 75, was stabbed up to 15 times, including in the neck and in the abdomen
- Rushdie was attacked by Hadi Matar, 24, who rushed the stage before 'punching and stabbing' the author multiple times in front of horrified witnesses at a literary fair in Chautauqua, New York, near Buffalo
- Law enforcement sources have said that Matar has sympathies to the Iranian regime and to the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah
- A fake driver's license that was found on Matar when he was arrested contained the names of two Hezbollah commanders, Hassan Mughniyah
- Rushdie's agent Andrew Wylie provided an update on his condition shortly before 7 p.m. on Friday
- Wylie said 'the news is not good' and that, 'Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged'
Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei praises stabbing of Salman Rushdie and says fatwa against Satanic Verses author was 'fired like a bullet that won't rest until it hits its target' as Islamic hardliners celebrate
Salman Rushdie's attacker is American of Lebanese descent https://t.co/fb35ZVxegr
— Naharnet (@Naharnet) August 13, 2022