The man accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie said he respected Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini but would not say if he was inspired by the fatwa issued by the former Iranian leader, according to the New York Post interview published on Wednesday.
Hadi Matar also told The Post that he only “read a few pages of” Rushdie Novel “The Satanic Verses” and that tweets in winter announced the author’s visit to the Chautauqua Institution gave him the idea to go there.
Rushdie, 75, was determined to deliver lectures on artistic freedom at the West York New York venue when the police said Matar who was 24 years old rushed to the stage and stabbed the writer born in India on Friday last week.
Rushdie has lived with a gift on his head since “The Satanic Verses” published in 1988 encouraged Khomeini to issue a fatwa who urged Muslims to kill him.
“I respect Ayatollah. I think he’s a great person. As far as I will say about it,” the post quoted Matar in a video interview from Chautauqua Regency prison.
“I don’t really like it,” Matar said about Rushdie.
“He is someone who attacks Islam, he attacks their beliefs, the belief system,” he told The Post, adding that he had watched Rushdie’s YouTube video.
Matar denied in contact with Iranian revolutionary guard, The Post reported.
Matar, from Fairview, New Jersey, said he was innocent for the accusation of attempted murder and attack on the court’s performance on Saturday, Barone told Reuters.
Matar also told the post that he had taken the bus to Buffalo the day before the attack and then took Lyft to Chautauqua.
“I wandered quite a lot. Not doing anything specifically, just walking,” he told The Post, adding that he had slept on the grass on Thursday night.
“I’m right outside all the time,” the newspaper quoted him.
