So what did Hadi Matar, the alleged attacker of Salman Rushdie, do in Lebanon in 2018?
The young man, who stabbed the writer on Friday in New York state, had traveled there in 2018 and had returned "changed", according to his mother.
The latter told the Daily Mail website on Sunday that her son had become more religious since his stay in his family's country of origin.
Silvana Fardos, who has lived in the United States for 26 years, told the news site that her son had traveled to the land of cedars to visit his father.
The parents, both Shiite Lebanese, divorced in 2004.
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“I expected him to come back motivated, finish school, graduate and get a job.
But instead, he locked himself in (his room) in the basement.
He had changed a lot, he didn't say anything to me or his sisters for months,” she said.
"He once argued with me and asked me why I had encouraged him to study instead of focusing on religion," added the 46-year-old teaching assistant, also an interpreter. Arabic-English in a high school.
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'Salman Rushdie ran for his life': new testimonies of the attack
Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old American citizen charged with "attempted murder and assault" for stabbing the author of "Satanic Verses", lived with his mother in Fairview, New Jersey, on the opposite bank of the Hudson River from Manhattan.
The federal police (FBI) searched the housing of the latter and seized in particular knives, a computer and books, according to her.
No link with Iran, according to her
Saying "sorry for Mr. Rushdie", of whom she knew nothing before this attack, his mother assured not to deal with politics, denied knowing anyone in Iran and judged that her son was "responsible for his actions ".
The Islamic Republic, after three days of silence, on Monday "categorically" denied any involvement in the attack and blamed the perpetrator, 33 years after Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa condemning him to death.
Stabbed a dozen times in the neck and abdomen, Salman Rushdie, 75, saw his state of health improve, according to his relatives.
He had set part of the Muslim world ablaze with the publication in 1988 of "Satanic Verses", a novel judged by the most rigorous as blasphemous against the Koran and the Prophet Muhammad.