FBI says Michigan synagogue attack suspect was inspired by Hezbollah
Federal investigators have revealed that Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, the suspect in a violent attack on a Michigan synagogue, was driven by an association with Hezbollah. U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon emphasizes that referring to Ghazali as a ‘lone wolf’ is not accurate. Jonathan Schanzer, a former counterterrorism analyst, highlights Ghazali’s ties, including a familial connection to a brother who died while serving as a Hezbollah commander. Schanzer underscores the amplified terror threat, pointing out the critical need for vigilance among federal agencies in monitoring potential sleeper cells across the United States.
The man convicted for the brutal attack on author Salman Rushdie during an event in western New York has been found guilty of attempting to execute a decades-old fatwa issued by Iran’s government. The attack on the esteemed British author serves as a chilling reminder of the enduring shadow cast by this fatwa.
Hadi Matar, 28, was already serving a 25-year prison term after being convicted of attempted murder last year for his 2022 knife assault. This vicious incident left Rushdie severely injured, resulting in blindness in one eye and significant nerve damage.
A swift verdict from a federal jury in Buffalo on Wednesday concluded that Matar was guilty of all charges. The charges include attempting to offer material support to the Iran-affiliated Hezbollah, committing an act of international terrorism, and providing material assistance to terrorists, as reported by Reuters.
Matar now faces the potential of a life sentence, with sentencing scheduled for November 3, marking a significant conclusion to this high-profile case.
Hadi Matar, the man convicted of stabbing author Salman Rushdie, arrives for his sentencing hearing at the Chautauqua County Courthouse in Chautauqua, New York, on May 16, 2025. (Geoff Robins / AFP)
Federal prosecutors argued that Matar had been enraged by Rushdie’s 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses,” which portrayed a fictionalized version of Muhammad that many Muslims saw as blasphemous.
A year later, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or a religious edict, urging Muslims across the world to kill Rushdie. Iran’s government later backed away from the fatwa, only for Khomeini’s successor, Ali Khamenei, to reaffirm it in 2017, Reuters reported, citing the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said Matar, who was born in the U.S. but has Lebanese citizenship, spent more than a year studying the fatwa before attempting to fulfill it. He had also turned to Islam after a visit to the Middle East years before the eventual attack.
On August 12, 2022, Rushdie was speaking at the Chautauqua Institution in Mayville, New York, when Matar rushed onstage and repeatedly stabbed the Indian-born author in the head, neck, torso and left hand.
Salman Rushdie with his Liberatum Cultural Honour award at Liberatum’s 25th anniversary celebration, at Town Hall in King’s Cross, north London, on July 8, 2026, (Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty Images)
Matar’s federal trial weighed whether he had committed an act of terrorism by attacking Rushdie.
Although prosecutors acknowledged that Matar never contacted anyone in Hezbollah, they argued that without the fatwa, he never would have been motivated to try to kill Rushdie, The New York Times reported.
Prosecutors presented Matar’s notes to the jury, which referenced “Jihad” and the “need to kill him ASAP,” according to the Times.
Matar’s defense attorney, Nathaniel L. Barone II, argued that his client acted independently and was not being controlled by Hezbollah.
The Chautauqua Institution where Rushdie was attacked on August 12, 2022. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
Prosecutors countered by showing evidence of Matar’s devotion to Hezbollah, which included a photo of him wearing a Hezbollah shirt while making a salute, an essay he wrote that praised the terrorist group and a video he created using remarks from a former leader of Hezbollah, the Times reported.
Timothy Lynch, a federal prosecutor, said in his closing statement that Matar “wanted to be forever revered as a Hezbollah martyr,” according to the Times.
People listen as writers gather to read selected works by British author Salman Rushdie, one week after he was stabbed while on stage, during a rally to show solidarity for free expression on Aug. 19, 2022. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
Rushdie, who testified at the trial, has previously described the attack as something that took him back to the “distant past,” when he spent a decade in hiding after the fatwa was issued.
“I saw the man in black running towards me, down the right-hand side of the seating area: black clothes, black face mask – he was coming in hard and low, a squat missile,” Rushdie told “60 Minutes” host Anderson Cooper in April 2024. “I confess, I had sometimes imagined my assassin rising up in some public forum or other and coming for me in this way.”