The bomber of Salman Rushdiewho admits to having read only “a couple of pages” of the “Satanic Verses”, denies being in contact with the Iranian Guardians of the Revolution and assures that he decided to go to Chautauqua only after reading a tweet in which the news was announced of the writer’s visit. Hadi Matar he reconstructed that he took a bus to Buffalo the day before the attack and then a ride on the Lyft service to Chautauqua, where he wandered around idly and slept in a meadow.
“I don’t like Rushdie as a person. I don’t think he’s a good person. He attacked Islam, the creed of religion,” the 24-year-old from New Jersey, a fanatic inspired by Ayatollah Khomeini who had pronounced the fatwa against Rushdie in 1989. “I respect the Ayatollah. I think he is great. That’s all I’ll say,” he added, after pointing out that he had seen numerous lecture videos by Rushdie on youtube.
Matar, originally from South Lebanon, did not answer questions about his 2018 trip to the Middle East to meet his father. A visit that, as his mother Silvana Fardos testified, “changed him”. Since then he spent his days locked in the cellar surfing the Internet.