Salman Rushdie's attacker is American of Lebanese descent

W460

The man who stabbed the author Salman Rushdie in New York state, Hadi Matar, was born in the U.S. to Lebanese parents who emigrated from the southern border town of Yaroun, the town’s mayor, Ali Tehfe, told The Associated Press and Lebanese media outlets.

“He has never visited Lebanon,” Tehfe added.

U.S. police said Matar, 24, hails from Fairview, New Jersey. He was awaiting arraignment following his arrest at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education and retreat center where Rushdie was scheduled to speak.

Matar was born a decade after Rushdie’s "The Satanic Verses" first was published.

The motive for the attack was unclear, State Police Maj. Eugene Staniszewski said.

Rushdie, whose novel "The Satanic Verses" drew death threats from Iran's leader in the 1980s, was stabbed in the neck and abdomen on Friday by Matar, who rushed the stage as the author was about to give a lecture in western New York.

A bloodied Rushdie, 75, was flown to a hospital and underwent surgery. His agent, Andrew Wylie, said the writer was on a ventilator Friday evening, with a damaged liver, severed nerves in his arm and an eye he was likely to lose.

Rushdie's 1988 novel was viewed as blasphemous by many Muslims, who saw a character as an insult to the Prophet Muhammad, among other objections. The book was banned in Iran, where the late leader Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie's death.

Iran's theocratic government and its state-run media assigned no rationale for Friday's assault. In Tehran, some Iranians interviewed Saturday by the AP praised the attack on an author they believe tarnished the Islamic faith, while others worried it would further isolate their country.

An AP reporter witnessed the attacker confront Rushdie on stage and stab or punch him 10 to 15 times as the author was being introduced. Dr. Martin Haskell, a physician who was among those who rushed to help, described Rushdie's wounds as "serious but recoverable."

Event moderator Henry Reese, 73, a co-founder of an organization that offers residencies to writers facing persecution, was also attacked. Reese suffered a facial injury and was treated and released from a hospital, police said. He and Rushdie had planned to discuss the United States as a refuge for writers and other artists in exile.

A state trooper and a county sheriff's deputy were assigned to Rushdie's lecture, and state police said the trooper made the arrest. But after the attack, some longtime visitors to the center questioned why there wasn't tighter security for the event, given the decades of threats against Rushdie and a bounty on his head offering more than $3 million to anyone who killed him.

Matar, like other visitors, had obtained a pass to enter the Chautauqua Institution's 750-acre grounds, Michael Hill, the institution's president, said.

The suspect's attorney, public defender Nathaniel Barone, said he was still gathering information and declined to comment. Matar's home was blocked off by authorities.

Rabbi Charles Savenor was among the roughly 2,500 people in the audience for Rushdie's appearance.

The assailant ran onto the platform "and started pounding on Mr. Rushdie. At first you're like, 'What's going on?' And then it became abundantly clear in a few seconds that he was being beaten," Savenor said. He said the attack lasted about 20 seconds.

Another spectator, Kathleen James, said the attacker was dressed in black, with a black mask.

"We thought perhaps it was part of a stunt to show that there's still a lot of controversy around this author. But it became evident in a few seconds" that it wasn't, she said.

Amid gasps, spectators were ushered out of the outdoor amphitheater.

The stabbing reverberated from the tranquil town of Chautauqua to the United Nations, which issued a statement expressing U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' horror and stressing that free expression and opinion should not be met with violence.

Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday's attack, which led an evening news bulletin on Iranian state television.

From the White House, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan described the attack as "reprehensible" and said the Biden administration wished Rushdie a quick recovery.

"This act of violence is appalling," Sullivan said in a statement. "We are thankful to good citizens and first responders for helping Mr. Rushdie so quickly after the attack and to law enforcement for its swift and effective work, which is ongoing."

Rushdie has been a prominent spokesman for free expression and liberal causes, and the literary world recoiled at what Ian McEwan, a novelist and Rushdie's friend, described as "an assault on freedom of thought and speech."

"Salman has been an inspirational defender of persecuted writers and journalists across the world," McEwan said in a statement. "He is a fiery and generous spirit, a man of immense talent and courage and he will not be deterred."

PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel said the organization didn't know of any comparable act of violence against a literary writer in the U.S. Rushdie was once president of the group, which advocates for writers and free expression.

After the publication of "The Satanic Verses," often-violent protests erupted across the Muslim world against Rushdie, who was born in India to a Muslim family.

At least 45 people were killed in riots over the book, including 12 people in Rushdie's hometown of Mumbai. In 1991, a Japanese translator of the book was stabbed to death and an Italian translator survived a knife attack. In 1993, the book's Norwegian publisher was shot three times and survived.

Khomeini died the same year he issued the fatwa calling for Rushdie's death. Iran's current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, never issued a fatwa of his own withdrawing the edict, though Iran in recent years hasn't focused on the writer.

The death threats and bounty led Rushdie to go into hiding under a British government protection program, which included a round-the-clock armed guard. Rushdie emerged after nine years of seclusion and cautiously resumed more public appearances, maintaining his outspoken criticism of religious extremism overall.

In 2012, Rushdie published a memoir, "Joseph Anton," about the fatwa. The title came from the pseudonym Rushdie used while in hiding. He said during a New York talk the same year the memoir came out that terrorism was really the art of fear.

"The only way you can defeat it is by deciding not to be afraid," he said.

Anti-Rushdie sentiment has lingered long after Khomeini's decree. The Index on Censorship, an organization promoting free expression, said money was raised to boost the reward for his killing as recently as 2016.

An AP journalist who went to the Tehran office of the 15 Khordad Foundation, which put up the millions for the bounty on Rushdie, found it closed Friday night on the Iranian weekend. No one answered calls to its listed telephone number.

Rushdie rose to prominence with his Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel "Midnight's Children," but his name became known around the world after "The Satanic Verses."

Widely regarded as one of Britain's finest living writers, Rushdie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2008 and earlier this year was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honor, a royal accolade for people who have made a major contribution to the arts, science or public life.

Organizers of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which opens Saturday in Scotland and is one of the world's largest literary gatherings, are encouraging guest authors to read a sentence from Rushdie's work at the start of their events.

"We are inspired by his courage and are thinking of him at this difficult time," festival director Nick Barley said. "This tragedy is a painful reminder of the fragility of things we hold dear and a call to action: We won't be intimidated by those who would use violence rather than words."

The Chautauqua Institution, about 55 miles (89 kilometers) southwest of Buffalo in a rural corner of New York, has served for more than a century as a place for reflection and spiritual guidance. Visitors don't pass through metal detectors or undergo bag checks. Most people leave the doors to their century-old cottages unlocked at night.

The center is known for its summertime lecture series, where Rushdie has spoken before.

At an evening vigil, a few hundred residents and visitors gathered for prayer, music and a long moment of silence.

"Hate can't win," one man shouted.

Comments 5
Thumb scorpyonn 13 August 2022, 17:44

Gee, I wonder whose ugly hand is behind this? Could it be the pariah named Iran? Maybe a few more hellfire missiles should be aimed at some of those ugly clerics in Tehran.Terrorists need to be destroyed.

Thumb 10452km2 13 August 2022, 22:27

The motive for the attack was unclear, State Police Maj. Eugene Staniszewski said.

Maybe this will makes it clearer

During the 2006 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared that "If there had been a Muslim to carry out Imam Khomeini's fatwā against the renegade Salman Rushdie, this rabble who insult our Prophet Mohammed in Denmark, Norway and France would not have dared to do so".

Missing HellAndWaite 14 August 2022, 00:10

he is an American: born in America, raised on America, living in America, never been outside America. American laws and judicial system will deal with him.

Now, if only Lebanon's laws and legal system would similarly enforce Quranic law and civil law to not kill anyone. Or at least afford the former PM his rightful opportunity to execute his just right

Missing Cheesecake 14 August 2022, 02:10

Stupid attack. Salman Rushdie is an atheist who hates all religions. There are millions like him. Islam did not teach us to hunt them down and attack them. The Prophet sallalahu alayhi wsallam himself was insulted by the pagans without attacking them for these insults. Salman rushdie would have been another little known voice if it wasen't for the stupid khomeini fatwa who turned him into a martyr for free speach. I hate his insults but as a religious Muslim, i pray that he recovers and that Allah guides him. Extremist shias are not better than da3esh, they both shed blood as if its nothing.

Missing gabriel01 14 August 2022, 10:00

This uneducated extremist moron and sorry excuse of a human being makes me ashamed to be Lebanese.