Assassination attempt on Salman Rushdie: in Lebanon, embarrassment dominates

The British novelist and essayist Salman Rushdie, in 2018 in Paris.

AFP - JOEL SAGET

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

The gesture of Hadi Matar, the American assailant of Lebanese origin who stabbed the British writer Salman Rushdie several times in New York on Friday August 12, sparked a wave of condemnation in Lebanon.

Hezbollah refuses to comment on the affair and official circles are not very vocal.

Advertising

Read more

With our correspondent in Beirut,

Paul Khalifeh

Lebanese official circles are discreet about Salman Rushdie's aggressor.

In an effort to remove Lebanon from the spotlight, the director of General Security, Abbas Ibrahim, said on Saturday that Hadi Matar was born in the United States and " 

had never set foot

 " in his country of origin. origin.

Remarks denied by the mother of the aggressor, who assured the British press that her son had stayed for a month in Lebanon, in 2018, and stressed that this trip had "

 changed 

" him.

Questioned by numerous journalists, Hezbollah sources refuse to comment on the case.

But on social networks, circles close to the pro-Iranian party qualify Hadi Matar as a “

 hero

 ”.

However, many Internet users disapprove and condemn the attack on the British author of Indian origin.

A journalist, Dima Sadek, published two superimposed portraits of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, and the ex-head of the al-Quds brigade Qassem Soleimani, assassinated by the Americans, with a comment:

satanic verses"

, from the name of the famous book by Salman Rushdie.

The Shiite journalist hostile to Hezbollah claimed to have received death threats.

The media questioned the

timing

of the attack on Salman Rushdie, and expressed fears of its repercussions on a Lebanon in crisis.

►Read again: Salman Rushdie's life is no longer in danger, the assailant presented to a judge

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_EN

  • Lebanon

  • Hezbollah

  • United States