On 29th July (Wednesday), 28-year-old Lebanese American Hadi Matar was convicted of federal terrorism charges over the August 2022 stabbing of author Sir Salman Rushdie. He was found guilty by a jury of all the counts against him, including carrying out a transnational terrorist act. His counsel, Nathaniel Barone stated, “At this time, the defence rests”.
Matar was determined to be culpable of attempted murder in the attack which took place on the amphitheatre stage and is currently serving a 25-year sentence in New York state prison. A life sentence might result from the federal conviction. In front of a horrified audience, Rushdie was stabbed 15 times as he prepared to speak about the safety of writers. He suffered severe injuries and lost vision in his right eye.
Prosecutors argued that Matar was inspired by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late Iranian Supreme Leader, who called for Rushdie’s execution in 1989 due to “The Satanic Verses“, which was released a year earlier. He even circulated propaganda videos and spoke with a person in Iran who asserted to know the novelist’s whereabouts. Matar also enquired as to whether the fatwa (death decree) against Rushdie remained in effect.
A federal indictment disclosed that late Hassan Nasrallah’s 2006 speech motivated Matar to commit the crime. In the address, the Hezbollah (classified as terrorist group by the United States) chief at the time promoted a decades-old fatwa of Iranian religious leaders that they had imposed on Rushdie over 35 years ago in response to “The Satanic Verses.”
Matar later acknowledged that he had only read “a couple pages” which were condemned as blasphemous. “The defendant decided no one was going to do it, so he had to do it,” prosecutors remarked, outlining that his plan was underwork for 2 years.
According to US attorney Michael DiGiacomo, the Muslim man “spent months planning and preparing to carry out what he hoped would be the execution of Salman Rushdie.” Exhibits presented in court indicated that he discussed the fatwa with contacts on messaging apps in 2021 and 2022. The texts revealed that Matar was furious because he believed Rushdie had disparaged Islam and, by staying alive, encouraged others to do the same.
Photos found on his computer and in his bedroom in New Jersey showed that he supported Hezbollah. According to the chats, Matar first discussed wanting to “expose” Rushdie before considering killing him. “We need to kill him ASAP,” he wrote in a private note to himself. US attorney Timothy Lynch pointed out that Matar presented the heinous action as a component of what he saw as a jihad (Islamic holy war).
The internet exchanges revealed that by spring 2022, he had identified Rushdie’s residence and was keeping tabs on his public appearances. He eventually mentioned the fateful program at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York. “I was on the stage, lying down, with an enormous pool of blood all around me. It was an enormous and expansive lake of blood,” Rushdie recounted in the court.
Matar went onto the stage behind Rushdie as he was being introduced and attacked him. He used a fake name “Hassan Mughniyeh” which was also on his bogus driver license, to reach at the venue. The event’s moderator Ralph Henry Reese was also wounded when he tried to intervene along with the spectators. Matar, who holds dual citizenship of both Lebanon and the US was restrained and handed over to the authorities.
Muslims were incensed by “The Satanic Verses,” which was reportedly influenced by the life of Prophet Muhammad. They believed its content to be disrespectful. Afterwards. Iran’s religious leader issued a fatwa against Rushdie who was forced into hiding for 9 years and encountered many death threats.
The 1981 Booker Prize-winner was born in India and then relocated to the United Kingdom as a young man. He also released a memoir named “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder” in April 2024 about the failed assassination.
