Fri Feb 21 20:08:00 UTC 2025: ## Hadi Matar Found Guilty in Salman Rushdie Stabbing
**Chautauqua County, NY –** Hadi Matar, an American-Lebanese man, was found guilty on Friday of attempted murder and assault in the August 2022 stabbing of author Salman Rushdie. The jury reached a swift verdict after hearing testimony from Rushdie, who described the brutal attack during which Matar repeatedly stabbed him with a six-inch blade at a literary event in rural New York.
Rushdie suffered severe injuries, including a severed optical nerve, a lacerated Adam’s apple, and damage to his liver and small bowel. He testified vividly about the pain and near-death experience, stating the attack left him in a “lake of blood” and that he believed he was dying. He described the pain as a “10 out of 10.”
Matar, who faces up to 25 years in prison, will be sentenced on April 23rd. His defense team attempted to limit testimony characterizing Rushdie as a victim of persecution, stemming from the 1989 Iranian fatwa calling for his death over his novel *The Satanic Verses*. However, Matar himself had previously stated that, while he’d only read two pages of the book, he believed Rushdie had attacked Islam. Throughout the trial, Matar repeatedly shouted pro-Palestinian slogans.
The attack reignited the debate surrounding free speech and the limits of religious criticism. Rushdie, who lived in seclusion for a decade following the fatwa, had resumed a relatively normal life in New York before the attack. He recently published a memoir, *Knife*, detailing the incident. The case highlights the ongoing tension between the right to free expression and the sensitivities surrounding religious beliefs.
First Piper 