Albawaba.com
Damascus
Inas, Daughter of the Syrian novelist, Nabil Suleiman, confirmed that her father, who resides in the Syrian city of al Latakia, had been beaten up at dawn on Tuesday in front of his house. Suleiman was rushed to hospital for treatment of his injuries which included bleeding from the head and bruises to the face and chest.
The daughter told Albawaba.com that a previous attack at a dawn last Thursday damaged the novelist’s car.
Suleiman opened a cultural symposium in al Latakia on January 15th, 2001, where the critic Abdul Razzaq Said delivered a lecture on the civil society in Syria.
It was anticipated that the Syrian Novelist would hold the second session of the symposium on February 1st, 2001 which would include an address by Dr. Yousef Salameh on the concept of reform. The symposium is also due to feature an open discussion with the Syrian actor Omar Hajjo on his experience in the entertainment world.
Inas said that the assailant’s identity is “not unknown” to them and that what happened to her father is only one of the violent threats that Syria is facing these days as a result of the call for the reform and modernization of civil society by Syria intellectuals.
Commenting on the incident, the novelist Ali Abdullah Said, who is also from Latakia, said that “he considers what has happened to Nabil Suleiman a proof that Syrian intellectuals have advanced from the stage where they were marginalized, to the center stage of modern day Syria.” He added that the incident is also is a step towards an open battle between the supporters of violence, and those calling for coexistence.
“It is a sacrifice that should be made,” he said, referring to the confrontation.
Nabil Suleiman is one of Syria’s leading novelists. His work includes novels such as the Prison, Night Traveling, Flourishing Plant, and the Crowns. Among Nabil’s critical work is his book, Literature and Ideology in Syria, which was co-written by the late Abu Ali Yasin. The book stirred a controversy when it was published in the mid seventies. Suleiman is considered as one of the neo-leftist writers in Syria.
