The Jerusalem Post reports: The arrest of a gunman directly after the assassination of writer Nahed Hattar (pictured) in Amman on Sunday is no consolation to an increasingly troubled country that now must come to terms with its own extremism.
Hattar was shot on the steps of the Palace of Justice before a session of his trial for allegedly insulting Islam. He had posted on Facebook a cartoon of a bearded man from ISIS in bed with two women ordering God – shown as a kindly looking white-bearded man – to bring him wine and cashews. The cartoon flew in the face of the Muslim belief that God is not to be depicted.
After an uproar on social media, Hattar removed the cartoon and clarified that it was against ISIS, not against God. But the Jordanian government, in an apparent nod to the outcry, arrested him.
He was released on bail, and despite what relatives say were numerous threats against his life, the government did not offer him protection.
Until the shooting, Jordanians could perhaps still take some comfort in the fact that their country is a relative island of stability in a tumultuous region, which is punctuated by civil wars in neighboring Iraq and Syria.
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