FOCUS – Shiite of Lebanese origin, Hadi Matar, 24, is an admirer of Ayatollah Khomeini, supreme leader of the Revolution in Iran who launched the fatwa against the intellectual in 1989.
The profile of Hadi Matar, 24, who stabbed intellectual Salman Rushdie during a conference in New York State, is already becoming clearer. Charged with attempted murder and assault this Saturday, August 13, the man of Lebanese origin would have connections with Shiite extremism, indicated to the New York Post police sources. The first elements of the investigation reveal in particular support for the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution of Iran.
On his Facebook profile, since suspended by the platform, the suspect from Fairview, New Jersey, widely displayed his support for the Iranian regime and the ideology of the Revolutionary Guards. Images of various regime figures, including Iranian commander Qassem Solemani, assassinated in 2020 by a US strike, were visible on his “mur“. As for his profile picture, it displayed the figure of Ayatollah Khomeini, the “supreme leader of the revolution“, who took the head of Iran in 1979 and himself launched the fatwa against Salman Rushdie ten years later.
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A fake license in the name of the leader of Hezbollah
The perpetrator of the assassination attempt also had a fake driver’s license, in the name of “Hassan Mughniyah“. A pseudonym “eloquent for those who know Shiite Islamism and Hezbollah“, notes Romain Caillet, Islamologist and French consultant. The name evokes that of an officer of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards of Iran, Imad Mughniyah, who led Hezbollah, its Lebanese branch. He was shot in 2008 by Israel, with the support of the United States.
Contacted by the American agency Associated Press, Matar’s lawyer, Nathaniel Barone, declined to comment.
In Iran, the conservative press pays tribute this Saturday to the suspect, congratulating him for his act. “Kudos to this brave and duty-conscious man who attacked the apostate and vicious Salman Rushdiewrites the main ultra-conservative Iranian daily, Kayhan, whose boss is appointed by the Iranian Supreme Leader in person, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “Let’s kiss the hand of the one who tore the neck of the enemy of God with a knife“, continues the text.
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