He stabbed Mr. Rushdie 12 times… And did so 33 years after Imam Khomeini (R.A.) issued the fatwa.

12 wounds for the 12 Imams (A.S.) of Ahlul Bayt (A.S.) And 33 years for the 33rd Ayah of the 33rd Surah in the Holy Qur’an, Al-Ahzab, in which ALLAH (SWT) instructs the believers that all impurities and sinfulness have been removed from the Holy Prophet’s (S.A.W.W.) blessed and infallible Household (A.S.)

Purely accidental? Or calculated on the moujahid Hadi’s part, reflecting an intense and deeply-ingrained spiritual acumen and awareness (i.e. ma’rifa)?

In other words: Perhaps this operation was not just Anti-Zionist and counter-hegemonic at its core… But counter-Masonic too.

In Iran, the daily Kayhan congratulated the attacker, writing: “Brave to this brave and duty-conscious man who attacked the vicious and apostate Salman Rushdie.” “Let us kiss the hand of the man who tore the neck of the enemy of God with a knife,” he added.

And in Tehran’s book market, Mehrab Bigdeli, a Shia cleric, said he was “very happy to hear the news. Whoever the author is, I kiss his hand… God curse Salman Rushdie.”

In neighboring Pakistan, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan party – known for its violence against what it considers anti-Muslim blasphemy – also said Rushdie “deserved to be killed”.

Hadi Matar is a steadfast supporter of the Islamic Resistance and one of the exemplary youths that Sayed Ali Khamenei refers to.