Residents of Rushdie Suspect’s Lebanese Village Say Incident Has Little to Do With Them

A view of the town of Yaroun, southern Lebanon August 15, 2022. (Reuters)
A view of the town of Yaroun, southern Lebanon August 15, 2022. (Reuters)
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Residents of Rushdie Suspect’s Lebanese Village Say Incident Has Little to Do With Them

A view of the town of Yaroun, southern Lebanon August 15, 2022. (Reuters)
A view of the town of Yaroun, southern Lebanon August 15, 2022. (Reuters)

Street-side signs in the southern Lebanese village of Yaroun, the ancestral home of the suspect in the stabbing of Salman Rushdie, bear posters of Iran's former supreme leader Khomeini who in 1989 issued a fatwa calling for the author's death.

The logo of Lebanon's Iran-armed Hezbollah group adorns small monuments to its fighters killed during decades of wars with Israel, which borders Yaroun to the east and south.

The mood in the small Lebanese village is apprehensive.

Few want to speak about Friday's attack on Rushdie or about Hadi Matar, the 24-year-old American suspect whose family originally hails from Yaroun, where Hezbollah has strong support.

Locals say the attack on the novelist at a public appearance in New York state has little to do with them.

"There is no information... He was born abroad in America and remains there," local official Riad al-Ridha told Reuters. "No one wants to talk about it because no one knows anything."

Matar, from New Jersey, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault. An initial law enforcement review of his social media account showed he was sympathetic to Shiite extremism and Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to NBC New York.

The IRGC is a powerful faction that Washington accuses of carrying out a global extremist campaign.

US authorities have not offered any additional details on the investigation, including a possible motive.

Matar's parents emigrated to the United States and he was born and raised there, but his father Hassan Matar returned to Lebanon several years ago, Yaroun Mayor Ali Tehfe told Reuters.

Residents of the village said Matar's parents were divorced and the mother continues to live in the United States.

After the attack, the father locked himself in his home and was refusing to speak to anyone, Tehfe said.

Reuters visited a simple cinder block building where Tehfe said Hassan Matar lived. Two people inside, including a middle-aged man, declined to speak.

Seven people from the town, including four living in the United States and Australia, also declined to speak when asked if they knew Hadi Matar or would condemn his attack, citing the sensitivity of the case and a lack of knowledge on its details.

Rushdie has lived with a bounty on his head since the publication of his 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses," which is viewed by some Muslims as containing blasphemous passages.

Hezbollah, which was founded in 1982 by Iran's Revolutionary Guards and classified by the United States and other Western countries as a terrorist organization, has said it has no information on the attack. Iran's foreign ministry said only Rushdie himself and his supporters were to blame.

Critics of Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon have condemned the attack even as others close to Hezbollah offer support for Khomeini's 1989 edict - a call previously supported by Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Journalist Radwan Akil, a writer for Lebanon's Annahar newspaper, said on Sunday that he supported the implementation of Khomeinei's fatwa against Rushdie. The newspaper said in a statement his opinion "is entirely inconsistent with Annahar's policies which calls for fighting words with words".

Former Annahar editor Gebran Tueni and columnist Samir Kassir, both opponents of Hezbollah and of Syria's dominance in Lebanon, were killed in 2005.



These are 5 Things the UN Does that You May Not Have Known

The United Nations logo is seen on a window in an empty hallway at United Nations headquarters during the 75th annual UN General Assembly high-level debate in New York, US, September 21, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar
The United Nations logo is seen on a window in an empty hallway at United Nations headquarters during the 75th annual UN General Assembly high-level debate in New York, US, September 21, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar
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These are 5 Things the UN Does that You May Not Have Known

The United Nations logo is seen on a window in an empty hallway at United Nations headquarters during the 75th annual UN General Assembly high-level debate in New York, US, September 21, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar
The United Nations logo is seen on a window in an empty hallway at United Nations headquarters during the 75th annual UN General Assembly high-level debate in New York, US, September 21, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar

The United Nations' vast system has tackled everything from delivering life-saving humanitarian aid to providing crucial peacekeeping operations in conflict zones since it was established in the wake of World War II.

As the international body closes in on 80 years, questions about its relevancy and efficiency have sharpened from supporters and critics alike. Recent US cuts to foreign assistance and the reevaluation of humanitarian contributions by other countries have forced a reckoning for the UN, said The Associated Press.

The organization has long sought to highlight its unique role as the meeting place of global leaders, with an ambitious mandate to prevent another world war.

Staffers, however, say the UN does more than respond to civilians’ needs in war zones and debate resolutions in the Security Council.

“The things that are not on the radar of anyone, that nobody sees every day, that’s what we do everywhere, in more than 150 countries,” said Diene Keita, executive director for programs at the UN's population agency.

Here are five things the UN does that you may not have known:

Providing training to women and girls who have faced gender-based violence.

UN agencies facilitate programs worldwide focused on women, tied to education, financial literacy, employment opportunities and more. Among the most sensitive services provided are those for victims of gender-based violence.

In Chad, the UN Population Fund operates several rehabilitation programs for women and girls recovering from that trauma. One of them, Halima Yakoy Adam, was taken at age 15 to a Boko Haram training camp in Nigeria, where she and several other girls were forced to become suicide bombers. Adam managed to escape with severe injuries, while the others died in blasts.

Through UN programs on the islands of Lake Chad, Adam received health and reproductive services as well as vocational training. She is now working as a paralegal in her community to assist other women and girls.

“We are not created to stay,” Keita said of UN agencies' long-term presence. “So this is embedded in what we do every single day. We have that humility in knowing that we make a difference, so that people do not need us the next day.”

Resettling refugees in Mexico

Images of refugees at US and European borders show the migration crisis around the world. Often overlooked are the refugees who are resettled in communities outside American and European cities, ones that resemble their home countries and cultural upbringings.

Since 2016, the UN's refugee agency has supported the integration of more than 50,000 refugees and asylum-seekers in Mexico. They arrived in southern Mexico and were relocated to industrial cities after being screened and granted asylum by the government.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees provides transportation, orientation and access to health, education and other social services. More than 650 companies have agreed to train and employ these people, whose labor has generated a $15 million annual contribution to the Mexican economy, according to the UN.

According to UN estimates, 94% of these working-age refugees have secured formal employment within their first month in the country and nearly 90% of school-age children have enrolled in school. The UN program also provides what staffers describe as clear pathways to Mexican citizenship.

“Mexico has become a country where people forced to flee can find the stability they need to restart their lives with dignity,” Giovanni Lepri, the top UN refugee agency official in Mexico, said in March. “A strong asylum system and legal framework allows an effective integration of asylum-seekers and refugees.”

Eliminating exploding remnants of war

UN agencies are present throughout various phases of war, from delivering food, water and medical supplies in an active military zone to the iconic “Blue Helmets” — the military personnel deployed to help countries transition out of conflict.

Less attention is paid to efforts made after the dust has settled.

One of those initiatives, the United Nations Mine Action Service, was established in 1997 to facilitate projects aimed at mitigating the threat posed by unexploded munitions in countries years — and sometimes decades — after war.

The UN estimates that on average, one person is killed or injured by land mines and other explosive ordnance every hour.

In January, a 21-year-old man was harvesting olives in a Syrian orchard with two friends when they noticed a visible mine on the ground. Panicked, they tried to leave, but one of them stepped on a land mine and it exploded, amputating one of his legs above the knee.

A month later, in Cambodia, a rocket-propelled grenade believed to be more than 25 years old killed two toddlers when it blew up near their homes.

The UN program aims to work with communities in Syria, Afghanistan and Nigeria to safely locate and remove these remnants of war while providing education and threat assessments.

Since its inception, the UN says more than 55 million land mines have been destroyed and over 30 countries have become mine-free.

Teaching refugee girls self-defense in Kenya

In a refugee camp in northwest Kenya, dozens of girls 12 to 18 have gathered every Saturday at a women's empowerment center to learn self-defense through a Taekwondo class.

The program, launched by the UN's Population Fund last year, has focused on providing an outlet for girls who have either been victims of gender-based violence or are at risk of it after fleeing conflict zones in countries like South Sudan, Ethiopia and Congo.

The coaches are locals who understand the cultural and political dynamics their students face while living in a camp that is home to nearly 300,000 refugees.

The goal is to use sports activities to create safe spaces for women and girls to discuss various issues like period poverty, abuse and domestic conflict. The program, which the UN has replicated in Egypt and elsewhere, is funded by the Olympic Refuge Foundation.

Sex education by monks in Bhutan

Topics surrounding sex and reproductive issues were considered taboo for centuries in Buddhist communities. UN staffers have spent the past decade working with religious leaders in Bhutan and other countries in Asia to “desensitize” the topics they believe are crucial to a healthy society.

The campaign has led more than 1,500 nuns from 26 nunneries to hold discussions with community members around sexual and reproductive health and the prevention of gender-based violence.

Now, at least 50 monks are trained to provide counseling services on these topics to students across Bhutan's 20 districts.

The UN says these partnerships, which began in 2014, have contributed to a decrease in maternal mortality, an increase in contraception use, and better reproductive care for pregnant women.