Iran condemns assassination of Jordan's anti-Wahhabi, anti-Zionist writer

EghtesadOnline: Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi on Monday condemned assassination of Jordanian writer and political activist Nahed Hattar as breach of the universal norm of freedom of expression.

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27 September 2016

Those who could not tolerate the writing and thought of the anti-Zionist and anti-Wahhabi writer, committed the murder, he said.

He criticized escalation of violence and terror and the double-standard of the governments and the international media toward freedom of expression and disavowal of Wahhabism and Zionism, the Saudi doctrine of governance and the Israeli occupation doctrine, reports IRNA.

Qasemi called for immediate punishment of the assassin and his mentors masterminding the murder.

Hattar, a Christian and an anti-Islamist activist, was arrested last month after sharing on social media a caricature depicting a bearded man in heaven smoking in bed with women and asking God to bring him wine and clear his dishes.

Hezbollah of Lebanon mourned Hattar as a 'brave and vocal voice' against the Takfiris, a reference to the Saudi-backed Wahhabi Sunni terrorists.

While many Jordanians thought Hattar had crossed a red line with the caricature, some of his secular and liberal supporters said his arrest was a breach of freedom of speech.

Hattar had apologized on social media and said he did not mean to insult God but had shared the cartoon to mock fundamentalist Sunni radicals and what he said was their vision of God and heaven.

He had accused his Islamist opponents of using the cartoon to settle scores with him.