What do we know about Hadi Mather who attacked him?

KayhanAn ultra-conservative Iranian newspaper saw him as A “Courageous and with a sense of his duty” to get “Traitor and Cruel Salman Attacks Rushdie”. However, at this point, no direct link has been established between the 24-year-old man He stabbed him several times The author Satanic Verses And a fatwa launched from Tehran targeting the British novelist thirty years ago.

The attacker, identified by police as 24-year-old Hadi Mather, was from neighboring Fairview, New Jersey. Ten years after publication, he was born on American soil to parents who immigrated from Lebanon satanic verses, According to the Associated Press.

The man was arrested and taken into custody after the stabbing on the stage of an amphitheater at a cultural center in Chautauqua, upstate New York.

He was charged with assault and attempted murder while in custody, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said Saturday. The latter noted that police services are trying to gather elements of preparation for the attack to determine whether other charges should be retained. At a trial in New York court, Hadi Mather pleaded not guilty.

“It took five men to carry him”

However, authorities have not released anything about the attacker’s motivations or his modus operandi, forcing the American press to rely on conjecture and eyewitness accounts for the attack. Quoted The New York TimesA person in the front row of the audience described a scene of violence and a man “Relentless”, “Most Powerful” And “Faster”. “It took five people to pick him up and he kept hitting.” She testified. Michael Hill, president of the cultural center, clarified Friday that Hadi Mather had a ticket to access the conference.

According to US media, authorities searched his hotel room and residence in Chautauqua and seized a bag belonging to him.

According to the first elements collected by the NBC audiovisual team and police sources cited The New York Post, a preliminary examination of his social media accounts reveals sympathy for the Iranian regime and the Revolutionary Guards, the regime’s ideological army. Citing an anonymous source, NBC New York It also evokes an ideological affinity for Shia extremism.

Images circulating on social media show photos of icons of the Iranian regime, including Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie as screenshots taken before his Facebook account was shut down.

Salman Rushdie’s book, satanic verses, It has been banned in Iran since 1988 because many Muslims consider it blasphemous. The following year, Ayatollah Khomeini, supreme leader of the Islamic Revolution from 1979 to 1989, issued a fatwa (religious decree) calling for the author’s death.