Hadi Matar breaks silence on Salman Rushdie attack, says read only 2 pages of The Satanic Verses

Hadi Matar, the US man charged with stabbing author Salman Rushdie in New York earlier this month, has revealed why he went ahead with the murderous assault that sent shockwaves across the world. Speaking to the New York Post from jail in an interview, Matar said Rushdie wasn't a "very good person" and that he had insulted Islam.

"I don't like the person. I don't think he's a very good person," Matar told the newspaper.

"He's someone who attacked Islam. He attacked their beliefs, the belief systems," he added, indicating his motivation for the assault.

Matar also expressed surprise that Salman Rushdie survived despite multiple stabbings.

Rushdie was delivering a lecture at New York's Chautauqua Institution when Matar ambushed him. Matar told the newspaper that he had seen a tweet about Rushdie's appearance at the event.

Matar, 24, also praised Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, calling him "a great person". However, he didn't answer the question of whether Iran's fatwa against Rushdie for writing the Satanic Verses led to the attack.

“I saw a lot of lectures (by Salman Rushdie),” he said. “I don’t like people who are disingenuous like that.”

Matar, a US resident, also told the post he had read only two pages of The Satanic Verses.

Rushdie, 75, suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye, according to his agent, in the attack Friday. He is recovering.

Matar holds the US and Lebanon's citizenships. His parents were born in Lebanon.

In the 1990s, Iran had offered whoever kills Rushdie a reward of $3 million dollars.