Hadi Matar is a Lebanese Shi’a, linked to Hezbollah, who managed to be admitted to the United States — how he entered the country needs to be investigated — and was living in New Jersey when he tried to carry out the fatwa issued in 1989 by Ayatollah Khomeini against Salman Rushdie, for the crime of blaspheming Islam in his book The Satanic Verses. According to the fatwa, Khomeini ordered Muslims everywhere to kill Rushdie. For a decade, Rushdie was in hiding but finally began to appear in public, albeit with security guards. Now the man who tried to kill Rushdie, stabbing him in the head, neck, torso, and left hand, and leaving the writer blind in one eye and without the use of his left hand, has just been found guilty of attempted murder. Kathreen Masih wrote about this for Jihad Watch here, and more on this loyal defender of the faith and would-be murderer can be found here: “Man Who Stabbed Novelist Salman Rushdie Guilty of Attempted Murder,” Algemeiner, February 22, 2025:
Hadi Matar, the man who stabbed and partially blinded the novelist Salman Rushdie onstage at a New York arts institute, was found guilty on Friday of attempted murder.
Matar, 27, can be seen in videos of the 2022 attack rushing the Chautauqua Institution’s stage as Rushdie was being introduced to the audience for a talk about keeping writers safe from harm, some of which were shown to the jury during the seven days of testimony.
Rushdie, 77, was stabbed with a knife multiple times in the head, neck, torso and left hand, blinding his right eye and damaging his liver and intestines, requiring emergency surgery and months of recovery….
Matar faces a sentence of 25 years in prison from this conviction, but let’s not forget that he still faces another trial in a federal court for terrorism, and for providing material support to the terrorist group Hezbollah. Add at least another 25 years for those charges, and Matar will likely die in prison, as he deserves.
A Muslim fanatic, an admirer of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, outraged at what he described as Rushdie’s “attack on Islam,” savagely attacked Salman Rushdie in an attempt to murder him. He blinded him in one eye, and severely damaged his left hand, but failed to kill the writer. Matar will now be able for decades to conduct his prison dawah. Why not, to prevent that outcome, instead place him in solitary confinement for the next 50 or 60 years?
Matar was not the only Muslim who wanted to kill Rushdie — there have been several attempts on his life. Nor was Rushdie their only target. Anyone involved in the publication of the book, including its translations, also deserved to die. In 1991, the Italian translator of the book was stabbed, but survived. In the same year, the book’s Japanese translator, Hitohi Igarashi, was also stabbed to death. In 1993, the publisher of the Norwegian version of The Satanic Verses, William Nygard, was shot three times, but managed to survive. Rushdie, after he went into hiding, was told that members of the Lebanese Shi’a group Hezbollah, were trying to locate and to murder him,
Of course, a fatwa is not necessary to attack and kill the “enemies of Islam.” The man who decapitated the French teacher Samuel Paty in 2020 needed no fatwa to proceed. In a class on freedom of expression, Paty had shown his pupils several of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of Muhammad, including one where his genitals are exposed. Paty exempted Muslim students from having to attend that particular class. A Muslim student who was not even at the school at the time nonetheless complained to her family about Paty’s use of those cartoons. The story spread on social media, and a Chechen “refugee,” the 18-year-old Abdoullakh Abouyezidovich Anzorov, arrived to see justice done — that is, he decapitated Paty with a cleaver.
Other murders of teachers in France have not been directly linked to acts of “blasphemy,” but reflect, rather, the desire of some Muslims to harm Infidels as a way to show solidarity with other Muslims in distant conflicts. Such Muslim solidarity explains the October 13, 2023 attack by another Chechen, Mohamed Mogouchkov, on people at a school in Arras, in which the teacher, 57-year-old Dominique Bernard, was stabbed to death. This happened not even a week after the Hamas atrocities in Israel took place, in which the terror group’s operatives had raped, tortured, mutilated, and murdered 1,200 Israelis, and when, on October 8, the IDF began its attack on Hamas. Mogouchkov clearly wanted to demonstrate his solidarity with Hamas, and what better way to so that than by murdering a few Infidels?
RightStuff says
I think that it is time to warn the “ecclesiastical leaders”, wherever they might be, that they need to warn their mindless Muslim sheep that the violence and threats of violence must stop. If we don’t see some immediate improvement, maybe we should discipline the mullahs. Lovingly, of course.
Boogster says
We need the “death by pigs eating them sentence” for all jihadists.
Tony says
Another example of Islam and its Muslims as Muslims follow the Quran for its terrorism and violence against ALL Non-Muslims and Muslim hypocrites.
Islam and its Muslims fund, promote, and practice ideological subversion, propaganda, bigotry, discrimination, deceit, supremacy, segregation, hatred, violence, and terrorism as taught in Islamic Law and in Islam’s Quran, and Muslim actions should be legally challenged with a multi-faceted force of Western Laws like Muslims wield against Americans and Westerners. Like a Foreign Terrorist Organization(FTO) designated by the USA Secretary of State, Islam is a MUSLIM TERRORIST ORGANIZATION(MTO) fighting against Non-Muslims and NOT A PEACEFUL religion under Western Law because Islam funds, teaches, and promotes a Terrorist Criminal Organization with Muslims as Terrorists for Allah. Under Islamic Law, Muslims are required to terrorize Non-Muslims becausee it is a Crime against Allah to neglect this Muslim DUTY; Jihad means warfare against Non-Muslims to ESTABLISH ISLAM’S RELIGION(Quran 3:151; 9:29; Muslim Law Manual – “Reliance of the Traveller”, o9.0 and more). More specifically, Islam is a Muslim Terrorist Ideology and Murderous, Criminal Enterprise of intolerance, continuous war, discrimination, segregation, supremacy, genocide, polygamy, propaganda, deceit, hatred, incitement, sedition, rape, terrorism, and violence against all Non-Muslims as taught in the Quran(Quran 2:216; 4:65,89,95; 5:14; 8:12,39,74; 9:5,21,29,36, 41,49,88,111,123; 21:92; 49:15 and more).
Boogster says
Good summary but doesn’t go far enough. Islam really is a Satanic political system and death worshipping cult.
Debra Gour says
The Knights and Crusaders from the 14th Century had the Right idea ! To Fend off All Foreign Invaders, like Islamists, and Heathen Nations; in Heroic Battles, to save the Christians and Europeans from Annialation ! Or else we would never have had the Renaissance, Architecture, Music or Arts and Culture which we’ve enjoyed over the Centuries.
JS says
The Quran must be banned throughout the world. It causes too much death and radical extremism thrythr world.
James Lincoln says
JS,
Not banned – but studied critically.
Leonidas says
Islamic jihad must stop.
Islam ( submission)will collapse ,like USSR in 1989,if we DENOUNCE pseudo prophet criminal MUHAMMAD,who according to his biography( Sira) and traditions( Hadith) was a pedophile( wife Aisha was 9 yo), rapist, murderer, torturer , bandit (keeping20% of the booty for himself),liar and sex-slave trader, deserving no reverence but our contempt and also LIBERATE THE MUSLIM WOMEN from barbaric misogynistic Sharia Law.The Koran ( recitation)states women are dumb, less intelligent than men,wives must be beaten for disobedience by their hudbands ,all women will go to hell, unless in the last day their husband says he was pleased with her and all women must hide their curves and wear burkas ,so that men will not be aroused to rape them.Islam is a misogynistic ,violent , imperialist political ideology of Muslim supremacy ISLAMOFASCISM(>70%), DISGUISED AS A RELIGION(< 30%) that strives through violent Jihad and soft cultural Jihad of immigration ( dawa, Hijra)to subjugate the World.Jihadists are promised, if killed battling infidels-kafirs,) they will go to Paradise to enjoy 72 virgins ,taking along 70 of their relatives regardless of their sins!Muslim Immigration is Hijra( flight)to take over the country they settle in ,like Muhammad did to Yatrib-Medina.This, along with forced child marriages and four wives per man ( Bin Laden had 52 siblings and 16 children),the muslims will soon outnumber the local populations and will impose Sharia law .Withdraw from UN MIGRANT COMPACT ,that falsely claims immigration is a Human Right expecting Western countries to accept and provide for an endless number of muslim illegal immigrants ,thus islamizing them. Muslim “refugees “should stay in Turkey or vast rich Saudi Arabia ,until they can return to their countries.We must denounce islamic Sharia (=way)law of blasphemer,apostate ,homosexual , adulterer and hypocrite executions,misogyny,honor killings by stoning,hand amputations for theft,child brides,girls exclusion from schools,halal meat from tortured animals,clitorectomies,subjugation and segregation of women,burkas and Sharia banning of short skirts,bikinis,dancing,singing,painting ,sculptures of people,dogs,pork,alcohol and beauty contests .Demand gender equality for ALL muslim women.Punish severely those that kill apostates from Islam,blasphemers,adulterers or muslim hypocrites.Islam is incompatible with our freedom of speech, gender equality, values,way of life, Human Rights, Constitution, Republic and population stability needed to sustain Life on Earth.Tolerating intolerant Islam is cultural suicide!For more info on Islam go to YOU TUBE for: ApostateProphet,Exmuslims,David Wood,Ayan Hirsi Ali,BrigitteGabriel,BillWarner,Politicalislam.org,PamelaGeller,Jihadwatch,Nonie Darwish , Wafa Sultan,Richard Dawkins on Islam,Ani Cyrus , Geert Wilder,obsession – what the West needs to know.Also Google: Wikiislam, The religion of peace,barenakedislam, MEMRI etc.Watch the deposition of Ayan Hirsi Ali in Congress on"how to defeatIslam":https://www.hoover.org/research/challenge-dawa-political-islam-ideology-and-movement-and-how-counter-it
gravenimage says
Sadly many Muslim women also want to enfirce the savagery of islam, a d teach their own children to murder Infidels and “disobedient” women.
John1 says
You ask how he got into the country….. He was born and raised in the USA from super vetted Lebanese Muslim parents. Parents divorced and daddy moved back to Lebanon in the Hezbollah area. Son goes to visit daddy, and discovers his Muslim heritage and faith. He returns to the USA a changed man. A truly devout Muslim eager for jihad against the enemies of Islam.
THIS PROVES VETTING DOESN’T WORK, BECAUSE THEY BREED.
OLD GUY says
Attack rape and kill the love and peace of ISLAM. Kind of like the NAZI’S you are either one of them or you are the enemy.
Now thats the truth.
gravenimage says
Rushdie Aside, a Fatwa is Not Necessary to Attack and Kill the ‘Enemies of Islam’
…………………………………..
No, it’s not. Pious Muslims regularly murder non-Musims, “heretics”, and the insufficiently Islamic all the time. This is orthodox Islam.