Prominent Jordanian author, Nahed Hattar, was
assassinated in front of the court in Amman on 25 September 2016. As Agenzia Fides explained in an article dated 28 September 2016, Hatter had put a cartoon of "the god of Daesh" (a term in Arabic used to describe the Islamic State) on his Facebook account. This showed "a bearded man in heaven smoking in bed with women" and asking Allah to bring wine and cashews. After receiving angry reactions to this, Hattar deleted the cartoon. The writer, who Fides refers to as a non-believer from a Catholic family, was consequently accused of insulting Islam and arrested. According to The Atlantic reporting on 27 September 2016, Hattar"s family are convinced that their son only wanted to "
mock ISIS" distorted religious views of afterlife". The assassin is said to be a former imam.
Henriette Kats, persecution analyst at World watch Research, explains: "Jordan gives the impression of being a relatively liberal country and the situation for Christians is better here than in many other countries in the Middle East. However, there are still blasphemy laws in operation which limit freedom of speech. People need to be very careful not to insult Islam, its prophet or Muslims" feelings in any way since these are crimes carrying a maximum three year prison sentence. This time, a radical Muslim took the law into his own hands and killed the intellectual in question. This is a sad example of the radical elements in Jordanian society that do not accept any criticism of Islam - or its excesses."
