Rushdie’s attacker ‘changed’ since Lebanon trip, says mother

The alleged assailant of author Salman Rushdie “converted” and converted during a 2018 visit to his family’s native Lebanon, his mother said on the website. Dailymail.

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Hadi Mather, a 24-year-old American, was charged with “attempted murder and assault” for stabbing the book’s author. Satanic Verses Friday lived with his mother in Fairview, New Jersey, on the opposite bank of the Hudson River from Manhattan, in East New York.

Silvana Furdos, 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. His parents, both from Shiite Lebanon, divorced in 2004.

“I expected him to come back motivated, complete his studies, graduate and get a job. But instead he locked himself away [sa chambre] In the basement. He has changed a lot and he hasn’t said anything to me or his sisters for months,” she said.

“He once argued with me and asked me why I encouraged him to study rather than focus on religion,” said the 46-year-old teaching assistant, who also taught Arabic-English at a high school.

Telling herself to “sorry Mr. Rushdie” about whom she knew nothing before the attack, she vowed not to get involved in politics, denied knowing anyone in Iran, and ruled that “her son is responsible for his actions.”

The Federal Police (FBI) searched the latter’s residence and seized certain knives, a computer and books.

Salman Rushdie, 75, who was stabbed a dozen times in the neck and stomach, is improving, his relatives said.

Iran, after three days of silence, on Monday denied any involvement in the “planned” attack and charged the perpetrator, 33 years after Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa issued a death sentence.

Salman Rushdie set a part of the Muslim world on fire with its publication in 1988 Satanic VersesA novel judged by the strictest to be blasphemy against the Koran and the Prophet Muhammad.