BEIRUT-
The stabbing of author Salman Rushdie has exposed divisions in Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim community, pitting a few who denounce the violence against ardent supporters of the Iranian-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah who have praised the attack. A Rushdie supporter received death threats.
The attack hit close to home among Lebanon’s Shiites. The assailant, Hadi Matar, 24, has dual Lebanese and American citizenship, and his father lives in a village in Hezbollah-dominated southern Lebanon. Matar’s mother has said that she believes her son’s visit to Yaroun village in 2018 turned him into a religious fanatic.
The religious edict, or fatwa, that urged Muslims to kill Rushdie was issued in 1989 by Iran’s then spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who accused the author of blasphemy for his portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad in the novel “The satanic verses.
Iran, a close Hezbollah ally, praised Friday’s attack but denied direct involvement. Hezbollah officials have been quiet since the attack on Rushdie, 75, as he was about to give a lecture in western New York. A Hezbollah official declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press.
Rushdie suffered liver damage and severed nerves in his arm and eye, but was taken off the ventilator on Saturday and was able to speak.
Most Lebanese Shiites support Hezbollah and the more secular ally Amal movement of Parliament Speaker Nabih, who won all 27 seats allocated to the sect during this year’s parliamentary elections. Parliament and Cabinet seats are divided in Lebanon according to religious affiliations.
Still, there is a vocal minority of Hezbollah critics among Shias. Several were attacked and one was shot dead last year.
As the controversy swirled, an old video of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah resurfaced on social media. In it, Nasrallah said that “no one would have dared to attack the Prophet Muhammad of Islam again” if Rushdie had been assassinated immediately after the fatwa.
Some Hezbollah critics have accused the group and its followers of teaching their children to kill in the name of religion.
Matar’s mother, Silvana Fardos, told local Al-Jadeed television Tuesday night that her son had lived his entire life in the United States until he visited Lebanon for the first and last time in 2018. That trip changed him. forever, he said.
“After he came back from Lebanon, he was a different human being… I knew he had a long depression and hoped to wake up one day and find out he had committed suicide,” Fardos said, claiming her son was being mistreated by his father.
When asked if she wondered if she had raised a terrorist or an extremist, the mother said: “No. I raised an angel.”
Journalists have been prevented from entering Yaroun and Matar’s father has not spoken to the media.
Despite Hezbollah’s official silence, the group’s followers on social media praise the attack.
Some launched threats against prominent journalist Dima Sadek after she posted on her Twitter account a photo of Khomeini and General Qassim Soleimani, a top Iranian general killed in a US attack in 2020, describing the two as “satanic verses.”
Since then, the death threats on social media and through messages on her cell phone have continued unabated, with one man warning her “I will rape you in public” and another saying “your blood must be spilled”. He received a text message in which the sender told him where he lives.
Sadek said that despite public threats, authorities have not contacted her to offer her protection.
“This is the first time I feel like I’m in danger,” Sadek, a harsh critic of Hezbollah for years, told the AP. She alleged that the social media campaign against her is orchestrated by Nasrallah’s son, Jawad.
She said that she is restricting her movements for the first time.
The Committee to Protect Journalists urged the Lebanese authorities to launch an investigation and protect Sadek.
Shiite journalist Mohamad Barakat, managing editor of the news website Asas Media, was also attacked after writing that by stabbing Rushdie, Matar “stabbed Shiites living in Europe and the United States.”
On the other side, Lebanese journalist Radwan Akil of the renowned local daily An-Nahar said in apparently contradictory comments that he tolerated the fatwa against Rushdie, but not the murder of anyone, including writers.
“Of course I am with political freedoms and freedom of expression… but I am not here to criticize the greatest man in history, the Prophet Mohammed, and I also reject criticism of Jesus Christ,” Akil said in an interview. televised with Lebanese. media.
An-Nahar issued a statement, titled “adopting a call for assassination contradicts our policies.” He said that Akil’s opinions were his own. Two journalists who had worked for the newspaper and were outspoken critics of Hezbollah and the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, another Iranian ally, were killed in car bomb attacks in 2005.
The debate may eventually fizzle out because most Lebanese are worried about the country’s economic collapse and lack of services. “They have a lot of other concerns,” said Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut.
Lebanese political leaders have not commented on Rushdie’s attack.
However, interim Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada denounced Rushdie’s portrayal of the prophet.
“Freedom of expression must be polite,” tweeted Mortada, a Shiite minister close to Hezbollah allies. “Insults or holding dark grudges have nothing to do with morality.”
Associated Press writer Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.