July 29, 2022
The sixth Shiite cleric to be attacked in Iran this year was stabbed repeatedly in the back as he was delivering a sermon in Karaj July 28.
The cleric, Morteza Musavi, was rushed to a hospital and was in stable condition and expected to survive.
The attacker was swiftly subdued. Police identified him as an Iranian Shiite, but provided no motive for the attempt at killing Musavi.
Musavi was the sixth Shiite clergyman attacked since Now Ruz.
In the first attack in April, an Afghan Tajik identified as Sunni knifed three clerics inside the shrine in Mashhad, killing two of them. The attacker has since been executed.
Then, in June, an attacker, presumably Shiite, wielding a knife attacked and injured the official representative of the Supreme Leader in Esfahan.
Next, in July, a man on a motorcycle who was also understood to be Shiite injured a Friday prayer leader in Esfahan in an assassination attempt.
Earlier in the year, a senior Islamic scholar said that clerics and seminary students are avoiding their usual garb for fear of being insulted in public, as the people in Iran blame the clergy for the current hardships they experience, including high prices and corruption. Another well-known cleric also talked about the growing hatred and grudges toward the clergy in January, warning of a crisis unfolding in society.