Writer Salman Rushdie’s alleged assailant had returned “changed” and more religious from a 2018 trip from Lebanon, his family’s country of origin, his mother told the Chron website.
• Also read: Iran “categorically” denies any link to aggression, accuses Salman Rushdie
• Also read: Salman Rushdie is no longer ventilated and has started speaking again
Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old American charged with “attempted murder and assault” for stabbing the author of “Satanic Verses” to death in east New York on Friday, was living with his mother in Fairview, New Jersey, on opposite bank of the Hudson River from Manhattan.
Silvana Fardos, who has lived in the United States for 26 years, told the website that her son traveled to Lebanon in 2018 to visit his father. The parents, both Shia Lebanese, divorced in 2004.
“I expected him to come back motivated to finish school, graduate and get a job. Instead he locked himself (in his room) in the basement. He had changed a lot, he didn’t say anything to me or his sisters for months,” she said.
“He once argued with me and asked me why I encouraged him to study instead of focusing on religion,” added the 46-year-old education assistant, who is also an interpreter for Arabic and English at a high school.
She said to herself “sorry for Mr. Rushdie,” whom she knew nothing about before the attack, affirmed that she had no involvement in politics, denied knowing anyone in Iran, and judged her son “responsible for his actions.” ” be.
The federal police (FBI) searched the latter’s apartment and, according to them, confiscated knives, a computer and books in particular.
Salman Rushdie, 75, was stabbed a dozen times in the neck and stomach and has seen his health improve, according to his loved ones.
After three days of silence, Iran on Monday “categorically” denied any involvement in the attack and blamed the perpetrator, 33 years after Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa sentenced him to death.
Salman Rushdie had set fire to part of the Muslim world with the publication in 1988 of Satanic Verses, a novel judged by the strictest to be blasphemous against the Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad.