October 14, 2022
Another two clerics have been attacked and beaten in a continuing series of unprovoked assaults on clergymen that are taken to reflect growing hatred of mullahs and a growing willingness to express that hostility violently.
The latest pair of attacks took place in Qom late in August. The two clerics were attacked by a pair of men who beat them with iron pipes. One of the clergymen was seriously injured and required surgery, according to the Hawzeh news agency, which is linked to Qom seminary system.
They were the seventh and eighth clerics known to have been attacked this Persian year.
In the first attack, 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 early July, a man on a motorcycle who was also understood to be Shiite injured a Friday prayer leader in Esfahan in another assassination attempt. The sixth attack came July 28 in Karaj where a cleric was stabbed repeatedly while delivering a sermon. The attacker was swiftly subdued and identified as a Shiite.