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Jordan author in anti-Islam case shot dead
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A PROMINENT Jordanian writer was shot dead yesterday on the steps of a court where he was facing charges for sharing an anti-Islam cartoon online, in an attack flayed as “heinous.”
Nahed Hattar was struck by three bullets before the alleged assassin was arrested at the scene of the shooting in Amman’s central Abdali district, the official Petra news agency said.
The assailant — bearded and dressed in a grey dishdasha worn by conservative Muslim men — shot Hattar, a 56-year-old Christian, as he made his way up the stairs of the court, a security source revealed.
Struck in the head, he was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.
The gunman, a 49-year-old Amman resident, gave himself up to police at the court, the source added.
Hattar was arrested on August 13 and charged with inciting sectarian strife and insulting Islam before being released on bail in early September.
The cartoon Hattar posted on his Facebook page featured an illustration of God under the title “God of Daesh,” using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
It depicts a bearded man in bed smoking with two women lying to either side, addressing God as a servant. He asks for a glass of wine, cashew nuts and orders someone to clean the floor, before telling God to knock before entering next time.
Any depiction of God is prohibited in Islam.
Hattar removed the cartoon from his Facebook page after it triggered outrage on social media.
At the time, he explained that the cartoon made fun of “terrorists and how they imagine God and heaven, and does not insult God in any way.”
The attorney general had imposed a blackout media coverage of the case against Hattar, an ardent supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The government denounced his killing as a “heinous crime.”
“The law will be firmly applied to the person who committed the crime and the government will strike with an iron fist anyone who dares to take advantage of this to spread hate speech,” a spokesman said.
The opposition Muslim Brotherhood and Dar al-Iftaa, the highest religious authority, also condemned the attack.
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