La Jornada: Salman Rushdie’s attacker found guilty of terrorism

Hadi Matar was found guilty of federal transnational terrorism charges for the 2022 stabbing of author Salman Rushdie, who had lived under death threats for decades because of his novel The Satanic Verses. Matar, 28, is already serving a 25-year prison sentence in New York for the attempted murder of the author.

The federal sentence now carries a possible life sentence. Prosecutors argued that Matar was motivated by a 1989 call by the late Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, for Rushdie to be assassinated in the wake of The Satanic Verses. Defense attorney Nathaniel Barone countered that the government lacked evidence regarding Matar’s inner motivations.

Matar himself declined to testify, though Rushdie did, telling the jury, “I can’t say what his ambitions or his objective were, but the wounds were scattered all over my body.”

The Satanic Verses, a magical realism novel published in 1988, received critical acclaim in the UK but sparked widespread protests throughout the Muslim world. Some believers considered certain passages, particularly a dream sequence, to be blasphemous against the prophet of Islam, Muhammad. Rushdie, who was born into a Muslim family, maintained that the dream sequence was pure fiction.

It remained hidden for years, gradually resurfacing after the Iranian government appeared to distance itself from Khomeini’s 1998 fatwa, or religious edict. It was never officially revoked, and Khomeini’s successor, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, indicated in 2017 that it remained in effect. An Iranian foundation has offered a reward of more than $3 million for Rushdie’s murder.

Prosecutors presented evidence that Matar repeatedly discussed the fatwa with his contacts on messaging apps between 2021 and 2022. These messages revealed Matar’s anger, as he felt Rushdie had attacked Islam and, by surviving, had emboldened others to insult the faith.

Matar alluded to a similar comment made in 2006 by Hassan Nasrallah, the late leader of the militant group Hezbollah. Born in the United States, Matar also holds Lebanese citizenship, and Hezbollah is based in Lebanon.

Prosecutors stated that photos found in Matar’s New Jersey hotel room and on his computer indicated his support for Hezbollah, an organization the United States has designated as a terrorist group.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Lynch stated in his opening argument on July 22 that Matar intended to comply with the fatwa and “wanted everyone to know that he was doing it for Hezbollah.”

The messages revealed that Matar initially spoke of his desire to “unmask” Rushdie before wanting to “take his life.”

In a private note, he wrote, “We have to kill him as soon as possible,” according to Lynch, who added that Matar framed the murder as part of what he considered a jihad, or holy war.

In the spring of 2022, according to the emails, Matar had identified Rushdie’s residence and was monitoring his public appearances, until he finally located and attacked him on August 12, 2022.