by Kanishka Singh
Aug 13 (Reuters) – The perpetrator of the bombing of Salman Rushdie at a conference in New York state is a sympathizer of Shiite extremism and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), NBC New York said Saturday, citing law enforcement sources.
Indian-born author Salman Rushdie, the target of a “fatwa” from Iran in 1989 after the publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses”, was stabbed in the neck and chest during a conference on Friday. After several hours of surgery, Rushdie was on a ventilator and unable to speak Friday night.
Police identified the suspect in custody as Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old man from Fairview, New Jersey, who purchased a ticket to the event at the Chautauqua Institution in the western part of the state. from New York.
Reuters could not immediately establish whether Hadi Matar had a lawyer.
A preliminary review of Hadi Matar’s social media accounts by law enforcement showed he was supportive of Shiite extremism and IRGC causes, NBC New York reported, citing an unnamed law enforcement official. the order aware of the investigation into the attack.
Hadi Matar was born in California and recently moved to New Jersey, according to an NBC New York article, which adds that he was in possession of a fake driver’s license.
On Friday night, FBI agents visited his last known address, Fairview, a neighborhood in Bergen County just across from Manhattan across the Hudson, NBC New York reports.
Police in New York and New Jersey did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the content of this NBC New York article.
Police said on Friday they had not established the motive for the attack on Salman Rushdie, 75, who was due to speak at a conference on artistic freedom in front of an audience of several hundred people when the attacker walked away. rushed to the stage and threw himself on the novelist. Salman Rushdie’s head has been on the table since 1989.
According to NBC New York, the official said no definitive link had been established with the IRGC, but initial assessment indicated the suspect had sympathies with the Iranian government organization.
The Iranian government has not officially responded to the attack on Salman Rushdie, but several hard-line Iranian newspapers have praised his assailant.
Ali Tehfe, mayor of Yaroun in southern Lebanon, said the suspect was the son of a man from the town. The suspect’s parents migrated to the United States and he was born and raised there, the mayor added.
Asked whether the suspect or his parents were affiliated with or supported the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon, Ali Tehfe said he had “no information” about their political views.
A Hezbollah official told Reuters on Saturday that the Iranian-backed Lebanese armed group had no further information on the attack on Salman Rushdie.
The stabbing has been condemned by writers and politicians around the world as an attack on freedom of expression.
Salman Rushdie, who was born into a Kashmiri Muslim family in Bombay, has been the subject of death threats for several decades. His novel The Satanic Verses is considered by some Muslims to contain blasphemous passages and has been banned in many countries with large Muslim populations.
In 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then supreme leader of Iran, issued a fatwa, or religious saying, calling on Muslims to kill the novelist and anyone involved in the publication of the book for blasphemy. (Report Kanishka Singh Washington; with the contribution of Timour Azhari Beirout; French version Jean-Michel Blot)