Hadi Matar, Salman Rushdie’s attacker “was radicalized”. Maybe in contact with the pasdaran

A trip can change your life. Worse. It depends on the main character and who he meets. The mother of Hadi Matar, Salman Rushdie’s attacker, is convinced that her son has changed course after a month in the Middle East. The captivity In an interview with Daily mailSilvana Fardos, a Lebanese Muslim, said that in 2018
Hadi left for Lebanon
he wanted to meet his father who had settled in his native village of Yaroun after his divorce. That return to the origins would have influenced the young man’s existence: It was going bad – said the woman – relations with the parent were conflicting and he called me almost immediately saying that he wanted to return to the United States. Instead, he stopped working for 28 days: it is currently unknown whether he has had any contact with political or extremist circles. What is certain is that once Matar got home he seemed much more religious and withdrawn. He criticized his mother for not being observantHe avoided it, spent most of his time in the basement of the house, refused access to relatives, had no direct contact, and preferred to cook his own meals. A kind of captivity – punctuated by gym and boxing episodes – reminiscent of that of some American mass shooters.

the investigations

Is it during this form of isolation that the future attacker “discovered” his target? The FBI seized material, including the computer of the young man who was born in California 24 years ago. Agents are looking for potential inspirers. The website Shameciting intelligence circles, he introduces a trail: there would have been contacts through the web, it is not clear which entity/form, with elements of the Qods division, the clandestine apparatus of Iran’s Pasdaran. But these are rather vague references, without precise feedback. And that’s why we keep looking at the personal context. Silvana’s version matches that of a former classmate who was the first to describe Matar’s extreme sensitivity to issues related to Islam. Other testimonies, on the other hand, have confirmed the introverted nature of the twenty-year-old. They are scattered pieces, not enough to build a precise profile. Researchers need time to “dig”. For now there is family history: the period in California, the divorce in 2004, the father who goes to Lebanon, the mother who goes bankrupt and moves to New Jersey in 2014 with the children, Matar’s visit to Lebanon in 2018, the progressive isolation, so the attack on the author. Personal unease that may meet an extremist side, with the knife fascinated by the Iranian guards of the revolution, by the general Qasem Soleimani, from the symbols of Shia militancy as documented by his social media posts. However, it is still little, it is only a starting point – just like the rumors about Shame – requires some more detective work from federal agents. Admittedly, they look in the “backyard” and far away, given the implications of the fatwa issued by Imam Khomeini in a very remote 1989.

The reactions

State Secretary Antony Blinken he explicitly mentioned Iran, in his note on Rushdie, after Republicans criticized President Biden for failing to do so. “Iranian institutions have been inciting violence against the writer for years and the state media has welcomed the attack on him in recent days. All this is despicable » The reactions from Tehran are always binary according to custom. The media made no secret of its satisfaction with the attack on the book’s author Satanic verses
, the headlines have explicit references to revenge. The government, on the other hand, has officially denied any relationship with the act of violence, but has been careful not to condemn it and has presented it as a natural response to the crime against the Prophet. It ranks years of threats against Rushdie, an ongoing hate speech knowing that eventually someone would heed the appeal. To obey a direct command, but also without it, in accordance with an indelible religious decree.