“This was a targeted, unprovoked and premeditated attack on Mr. Rushdie.” The words of Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt leave no room for doubt. The attack suffered by Salman Rushdie on Friday August 12 is the result of a carefully considered project by a visible admirer of Ayatollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of the Iranian revolution, who in 1989 had launched a fatwa against the British writer. The court therefore decided on Saturday to charge Hadi Matar with “assault and attempted murder”, without any bail being paid to release him.
The elements known to date indeed tend to show the fatal determination of this 24-year-old man of American nationality and living in New Jersey, but originating from the Shiite community of Lebanon. In particular, he obtained, under a false identity and in advance, a pass to attend the public event where Salman Rushdie was to intervene. The study of his social networks has revealed the religious fanaticism in which Hadi Matar lives.
On his Facebook profile, now deleted, were visible photos of major figures of the Iranian regime, including that of General Solemani, assassinated by American forces in January 2020. According to New York Times, he also had a false driving license in the name of Hassan Mughniyah, an undisguised reference to the surname of a former leader of the Lebanese branch of Hezbollah, assassinated in 2008 by Israel. Despite these damning charges, Matar’s lawyer said his client pleaded “not guilty”.
Iran’s ultra-conservative press hails ‘a brave man’
It must be said that in the eyes of ultraconservative Muslims, he does not have to feel guilty. Quite the contrary. The Iranian daily Kayhan, whose editorial line is established by the Supreme Leader himself, wished to salute a “courageous man who is conscious of his duty”, before calling on readers to “kiss the hand of the one who tore the neck of the enemy of God”. Officially, Tehran, which announced in 1998 that it would give up fulfilling the fatwa, did not react to this attack.
In Pakistan, the rigorous Tehreek-e-Labbaik party felt that Rushdie deserved to be killed. In an inverse ideological logic, the giant Amazon has reported a drastic increase in orders for Rushdie’s novel, “The Satanic Verses”, in the United States.