Several Iranian newspapers on Saturday heaped praise on Hadi Matar, the person who attacked author Salman Rushdie a day earlier.
Kayhan, a hardline newspaper in Tehran whose editor-in-chief is appointed by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, wrote: “A thousand bravos … to the brave and dutiful person who attacked the apostate and evil Salman Rushdie in New York… The hand of the man who tore the neck of God’s enemy must be kissed.”
However there has been no official reaction yet in Iran to the attack on Rushdie.
Earlier on Friday, Rushdie was set to deliver a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in New York, when a man stabbed him as he was being introduced. The attacker, later identified as 24-year-old male, was then overpowered by the police.
He suffered multiple wounds and has now been put on a ventilator.
“Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged,” Andrew Wylie, his literary agent, said.
While the police have not yet confirmed any motive or charges, they are in the process of obtaining search warrant to examine a backpack and electronic devices found at the site.
