Salman Rushdie attack: Iranians react with mixture of praise and concern

Praise for attack on writer targeted by decades-old fatwa comes as some fear incident will leave Iran more isolated

Iranians have reacted with a mixture of praise and concern over the attack on novelist Salman Rushdie, the target of a decades-old fatwa by the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini calling for his death.

It remains unclear why Rushdie's attacker, identified by police as Hadi Matar of Fairview, New Jersey, stabbed the author as he prepared to speak at an event on Friday in western New York state. Iran's theocratic government and its state-run media have assigned no motive to the assault.