Police are learning more information about the suspect, said to be from New Jersey, who allegedly stormed onto a New York stage and stabbed author Salman Rushdie in the neck on Friday
After Rushdie was pushed or fell to the floor, Matar was arrested by a New York State Trooper, and was awaiting arraignment. It was not immediately clear what charges he would face for the attack on the author whose novel “The Satanic Verses” drew death threats from Iran's leader in the 1980s.
Event moderator Henry Reese, a co-founder of an organization that offers residencies to writers facing persecution, was also attacked and suffered a minor head injury, police said. He and Rushdie were due to discuss the United States as a refuge for writers and other artists in exile. Rushdie's 1988 novel was viewed as blasphemous by many Muslims, who saw a character as an insult to the Prophet Muhammad, among other objections. Across the Muslim world, often-violent protests erupted against Rushdie, who was born in India to a Muslim family.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday’s attack, which led a night news bulletin on Iranian state television.
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