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| Jordanian Writer Is Fatally Shot | Jordanian Writer Is Fatally Shot |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| AMMAN, Jordan — A Jordanian writer and columnist was fatally shot on Sunday morning outside a court here, according to a statement released by the official Petra news agency. | |
| The writer, Nahed Hattar, 56, was shot three times, and a suspect was arrested near the scene, according to Petra. Mr. Hattar, a Christian, was arrested in August and charged with inciting sectarian strife and insulting Islam after sharing a cartoon on Facebook that showed a bearded man in bed with two women ordering God to bring him some wine and cashews. | |
| His post was widely denounced on social media, and he removed it shortly after. He deactivated his Facebook account and released an apology that said he “did not mean to offend anyone.” The apology, using another name for the Islamic State, also said the cartoon “mocks ISIS terrorists and their concept of heaven.” He was released on bail earlier this month. | |
| He had gone to the court for the trial when he was shot. | |
| A government spokesman, Mohammad Momani, said in a statement on Sunday, “We will hold the perpetrator who committed this despicable act to justice, and the government will respond with an iron fist to anyone who uses this incident as an opportunity to spread hate speech in society.” | |
| At the family meeting hall in Amman where photos labeling Mr. Hattar a martyr were stacked at the entrance door, family members consoled one another. Some scrolled through their mobile phones trying to find more information about the assailant. | |
| Mr. Hattar’s younger brother Majed, 51, was with him when he was attacked and still had blood on his clothes and shoes. Majed Hattar said he had chased the gunman and caught him by holding his beard. | |
| According to Saif Hattar, 48, a cousin, “This happened despite the government knowing that Nahed is a prominent person, that he received hundreds of death threats.” | |
| “We will not accept the body of the martyr, and there will be no funerals until we claim our rights. It’s very wrong what happened today,” the cousin said. | |
| “Nahed apologized about the cartoon,” he added. “It was misunderstood. We believe the ISIS poisonous mentality were the cause of this but the government failed to protect him.” | |
| The writer’s wife, Randa Kakish-Hattar, mourned with close family and friends at her home on Sunday. She said she had tried two days ago to persuade him to leave Jordan, but he refused. | |
| She also expressed shock and disbelief about what is happening in the country. | |
| “His two children saw him shot and killed before their eyes,” she said. “And for what? For sharing a cartoon on Facebook?” | |
| The killing was condemned by the Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, by civil organizations and by labor unions. | |
| “The murder of Hattar targets democracy and diversity in our society and aims to spread darkness and terrorism,” said Nidal Mansour, the president of the Center for Defending Freedom of Journalists, in a news release. “Even though we disagree with what Nahed says or writes, this is the time to stand united against terrorism and those who killed him. They want to instill fear and silence us.” | |
| Jordan, a United States ally, has long presented itself as a realm of tolerance and stability in an increasingly volatile region. The Muslim Brotherhood, outlawed in Egypt, was allowed, through its political wing, to take part in parliamentary elections last week. It won several seats, as did 20 women, a record for Jordan. | |
| But the country has been shaken by the Syrian civil war raging just over its northern border, and the government has struggled to accommodate hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled the violence. | |
| The kingdom’s leaders fear, with good reason, that extremism will cross its borders or arise from within them. In June, three intelligence officers and two other government employees were killed at a Palestinian refugee camp. In November, a Jordanian police officer fatally shot two American trainers, a South African trainer and two Jordanians at a training compound in Amman. In March, officials said they had foiled a major Islamic State plot to strike civilian and military targets. | |
| By coincidence, Jordan’s government resigned on Sunday, part of the normal process after elections. |