Article Author:
Associated Press
Bassem Mroue
Beirut (AP) — Author Salman Rushdie's Sting exposing divisions in Lebanon's Shia Muslim community and pitching several people to condemn violence against ardent supporters of the Iran-backed Shiite extremist Hezbollah group that glorified the attack. One Rushdie defender received death threats.
The attack struck near a Lebanese Shiite home. The perpetrator, his 24-year-old Hadi Matar, is a dual citizen of Lebanon and the United States. A citizen, his father lives in a Hezbollah-controlled village in southern Lebanon. Matar's mother says she believes her son's 2018 visit to Yaron's village turned him into a religious zealot.
A religious edict, or fatwa, urging Muslims to kill Rushdie was issued in 1989 by Iran's then spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. demon poems.
Iran, a close ally of Hezbollah, hailed Friday's attack but denied direct involvement. Hezbollah officials have been tight-lipped since the attack when his 75-year-old Rushdie was about to give a speech in western New York. Hezbollah officials declined to comment when contacted by the Associated Press.
It supports the more secular allied Amal movement of Parliament Speaker Nabih, who won all 27 seats. In Lebanon, parliamentary and cabinet seats are divided according to religion.
Nonetheless, there is a minority among Shiites who are vocal critics of Hezbollah. Several people were attacked, and last year one of him was shot dead.
An old video of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has resurfaced on social media amid the controversy. In it, Nasrallah said that if Rushdie had been killed shortly after the fatwa, "no one would have dared to attack the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, again."
Some Hezbollah critics have accused Hezbollah and its supporters of teaching children to kill in the name of religion. He said he spent his entire life in the United States until his first and last visit to Lebanon in 2018.
"After he returned from Lebanon, he was a different person... I knew he had a long depression. I thought you would know what you did," Fardos said. that her son was abused by her father;
Asked whether she had raised terrorists or extremists, the mother said, "No. I raised angels." Forbidden to enter, Matar's father has not spoken to the media.
Despite Hezbollah's official silence, supporters of the group on social media have praised the attacks.
Prominent journalist Dima Some made threats after Sadek posted a photo on his Twitter account of Iran's top commander General Qasim Soleimani and Ayatollah Khomeini, who were killed in a US attack in 2020. Two as "Devil's Verse".
Since then, death threats have continued through her social media and messages on her mobile phone. Hut. She received a text her message where her sender tells her where she lives.
Despite her public threats, Sadek said she had not been contacted by authorities offering protection.
She "this is the first time I've felt myself in danger," Sadek, who has been a harsh critic of Hezbollah for years, told the AP. She claimed that her social media campaign against her was organized by Nasrallah's son, Jawad.
For the first time, she restricted her movements, she said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has asked Lebanese authorities to launch an investigation and protect Sadek.
Mohammad Barakat, a Shia journalist and senior editor of the Asas Media News website, also wrote after stabbing Rushdie that Matar had "stabbed Shiites living in Europe and America." , came under attack.
On the other side, Radwan Akil, a Lebanese journalist from the well-known local daily Ann Nahar, made seemingly contradictory statements, condoning a fatwa against Rushdie but killing everyone, including the writer. said it was not allowed to do so.
"Of course I have political liberty and freedom of expression...but I do not intend to criticize the greatest man in history, the Prophet Muhammad. Nor does Jesus criticize His Christ. I also refuse,” said Akil. Television interview with Lebanese media.
An-Nahar issued a statement headlined "It is against our policy to adopt a call for murder." It was written that Achill's views were his own. Two journalists who worked for the paper, who were outspoken critics of Hezbollah and the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, another Iranian ally, were killed in a car bombing in 2005.
I am preoccupied with the country's economic collapse and lack of services. "They have many other concerns," said Hilal Kashan, a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut.
Lebanese political leaders have not commented on the Rushdie attack.
However, Interim Minister of Culture Mohammad Mortada condemned Rushdie's portrayal of the Prophet.
"Freedom of speech should be polite," tweeted Mortada, a Shia minister close to Hezbollah's allies. “Insults and resentments have nothing to do with morality.”
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AP writer Kareem Chehayeb contributed this report from Beirut.
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