Mother of the man who stabbed renowned novelist Salman Rushdie disclosed that her son, who was born and raised in the US, travelled to Lebanon for a month and returned as a “religious zealot”, according to a report in the UK’s Daily Mail on Sunday.

Hadi Matar, the suspect in the stabbing of author Salman Rushdie at an event in New York state, has been charged with attempted murder and is being held without bond, prosecutors in Chautauqua County said on Saturday.