Iran backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah denies involvement in stabbing attack on Salman Rushdie

Iran-backed Hezbollah, a terrorist organization in Lebanon, asserted on Saturday that it was unaware of the vicious assault on novelist Salman Rushdie. This remark was made almost a day after the writer was attacked by a 24-year-old Islamist called Hadi Matar. Prior to a speech in New York, he assaulted Salman Rushdie on stage during a program.

“We don’t know anything about this subject so we will not comment,” the official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Salman Rushdie has received threats for the past 30 years as a result of Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against him for his allegedly blasphemous novel The Satanic Verses.

It's interesting to note that the attacker, Hadi Matar, was in possession of a fake license with the name Hassan Mughniyah. This name is a combination of the titles of two top Hezbollah leaders. Imad Mughniyeh was a top Hezbollah leader close to Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, and Hassan Nasrallah, the organization's current commander.

Hadi Matar, 24, is charged with attempted second-degree murder after stabbing author Salman Rushdie at an event in New York, according to the Chautauqua County District Attorney.

Salman Rushdie, a novelist, said in an interview just weeks before he was attacked and seriously injured by the assailant that his life was now reasonably normal after living in anonymity for years owing to death threats.

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, which was published in September 1988, caused fury among Muslims all around the world. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran, issued a fatwa on February 14, 1989, demanding Muslims to execute Rushdie as retaliation for the publication of his book, which Muslims considered to be blasphemous.

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