Knife attack | Salman Rushdie’s attacker’s motive likely to remain unknown

(Mayville) Jurors chosen for the trial of a man who seriously injured writer Salman Rushdie in a stabbing attack likely won’t hear about the fatwa that authorities say motivated him to act , a prosecutor said Friday.

District Attorney Jason Schmidt said at a news conference that there was no “going there” ahead of the start of Hadi Matar’s trial Oct. 15 in Chautauqua County Court, W.A. New York State.

Prosecutor Schmidt said there was no need to suggest a motive, given that the attack was witnessed and recorded by a live audience who had gathered to hear Rushdie speak.

Potential jurors will still have to answer questions designed to eliminate implicit bias because Matar, of Fairview, New Jersey, is the son of Lebanese immigrants and practices Islam, Judge David Foley said. He added that it would be foolish to assume that potential jurors did not learn about the fatwa through media coverage of the case.

Matar, 26, is charged with attempted murder for stabbing Rushdie, 77, more than a dozen times, blinding him in one eye, as he took the stage at a literary conference at the Chautauqua Institution, in August 2022.

A separate federal indictment charges him with terrorism, alleging that Matar was trying to carry out a fatwa, a call for Rushdie’s death, first circulated in 1989.

Defense attorney Nathaniel Barone asked for assurances that jurors in the state trial would be properly vetted, fearing that current global unrest would influence their feelings toward Matar, who he said was faced racism growing up.

“We are concerned that there may be prejudicial feelings in the community,” said Mr. Barone, who also requested a change of venue out of Chautauqua County. The request is pending before an appeals court.

Rushdie spent years in hiding after Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against his novel The Satanic Verseswhich some Muslims consider blasphemous. Rushdie slowly began to re-emerge into public life in the late 1990s, and he has traveled freely over the past two decades.

The author, who described the attack and his recovery in his memoir, is expected to testify at the start of Matar’s trial.