Salman Rushdie stabbed: His attacker returned “changed” from a trip to Lebanon, according to his mother

The alleged attacker of writer Salman Rushdie had returned “changed” and much more religious from a 2018 trip to Lebanon, his family’s country of origin, his mother told the website. daily mail.

Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old American accused of “attempted murder and assault” for stabbing the perpetrator of the satanic verses Friday in eastern New York, he lived with his mother in Fairview, New Jersey, on the opposite bank of the Hudson River from Manhattan.

In the basement

Silvana Fardos, who has lived in the United States for 26 years, told the site that her son traveled to Lebanon in 2018 to visit his father. The parents, both Lebanese Shiites, had divorced in 2004. According to the mother of the family, the stay, which lasted a month, had not gone well: “As soon as she arrived, she called to come back. He stayed 28 days but the trip did not go well for his father, he felt very alone”.

An experience that, however, deeply marked the personality of the young man, according to Silvana Fardos: “I hoped that he would come back motivated, that he would finish his studies, that he would graduate and that he would get a job. Instead, he locked himself in (his bedroom) in the basement. She had changed a lot, she didn’t tell me or her sisters for months,” she said.

“Once he argued with me and asked me why I had encouraged him to study instead of focusing on religion,” added the 46-year-old educational assistant, also an Arabic-English interpreter at a high school.

“My daughters are upset”

Telling herself “I’m sorry for Mr. Rushdie”, whom she knew nothing about before this attack, she assured that she would not concern herself with politics, denied knowing anyone in Iran and judged that her son was “responsible for his actions”. .

“I can’t believe I’m capable of doing such a thing. He was so calm, everyone loved him. As I told the FBI, I won’t bother talking to him in the future,” she even added, explaining, “I have two dependent minors that I have to care for (she is the mother of 14-year-old twins, editor’s note). . They are upset, shocked. The only thing we can do is try to carry on without him. “

According to her, the federal police (FBI) searched her son’s house and confiscated knives, a computer and books.

Iran denies responsibility

Stabbed a dozen times in the neck and abdomen, Salman Rushdie, 75, saw his health improve, according to relatives.

Iran, after three days of silence, 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 set part of the Muslim world on fire with the publication in 1988 of satanic versesa novel judged by the most rigorous as a blasphemy against the Koran and the prophet Mohammed.