
According to NBC News, a preliminary law enforcement investigation of Matar’s social media accounts revealed that he sympathizes with Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps causes and Shia extremism. This was confirmed by a law enforcement officer who had direct knowledge of this investigation.
Rushdie went into hiding over several years following the fatwa issued against him. Iran’s government official maintained it until 1998 after his death. The writer later resumed his public appearances, wrote about his fatwa in his 2012 memoir Joseph Anton and even poked fun at it with Larry David on season nine of HBO’s Curb Your EnthusiasmIn 2017.
However, Rushdie’s fatwa has not been changed, and a bounty was attached by an Iranian semiofficial religious foundation. The New York Times reported. On Aug. 13, several hardline Iranian newspapers praised Rushdie’s attacker, Reuters said.
Rushdie will also be the event moderator Ralph Henry Reese Co-founder of Pittsburgh’s non-profit City of Asylum was also injured in the attack. Police said that the victim, aged 73 years old, sustained a mild head injury.
He stated in a released statement that Salman Rushdie “is one of these great authors and one the great defendersof freedom of expression and speech.” Twitter by PEN America, a press freedom group of which he serves on an advisory committee. We revere him, and his well-being is our primary concern.”
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