Radicals attack blogger after he stops being anti-Israel
An armed attack on blogger Ibrahim Musa, creator of the 'Voice of Arabs' project, took place near Minsk. The attackers—two brothers of Lebanese and Belarusian descent, medical students—were dissatisfied with his shift from an anti-Israel stance to a more objective one. The blogger is hospitalized in stable condition. The suspects have been detained.
On the evening of July 26, an armed attack on well-known Russian-language blogger Ibrahim Musa, author of the 'Voice of Arabs' project, occurred near Minsk. The incident took place during a birthday celebration that the blogger had flown in from another country to attend. The attackers turned out to be two brothers, aged 25 and 27, medical students born to a Lebanese Shia father and a Belarusian mother. They were long-time subscribers of the blogger and harbored resentment over his change in views: initially anti-Israel content shifted to more objective coverage of Middle Eastern affairs, including criticism of Iran and the eliminated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The assailants first attempted to poison Musa by treating a hookah bowl with a toxic substance, then one of them shot him in the side. The blogger is hospitalized in stable condition. The attackers have been detained and face lengthy prison sentences. Musa himself noted the paradox of radicalization among the diaspora, detached from real life in their historical homeland.