A man poured gasoline on a cleric lawmaker in Khuzestan province on Monday in an attempt to set him on fire. 

Majid Naseri-Nejad, one of 18 representatives of the oil-rich province, was in the city for the groundbreaking ceremony of a nursing college when one of his constituents emptied a bottle of gasoline on the cleric before being stopped by the MP’s entourage as he was trying to flick his lighter. 

According to Naseri-Nejad, the reason or motivation of the assailant is not clear, adding that he fled the scene after the incident. He added that a complaint has been filed and it will be followed up by the relevant authorities. 

The lawmaker claimed that unknown gunmen had also shot at his house and car before, without providing any details about such incidents. 

Attacks against the clergy have been on the rise in recent months, especially after protests engulfed the country in September, seen as the bane of the country’s problems as they gained increasing power since the revolution. 

Last month, a cleric had his neck slashed while leaving Tehran's metro while another cleric was stabbed in central Markazi province and taken to hospital after being wounded by his assailant, a young man in his twenties.

In late April, a former Khamenei aide associated with the mass executions of the 1980s was assassinated in a bank in the northern city of Babolsar.

In January 2022, a well-known Iranian cleric talked about the growing hatred and grudge towards the clergy, warning of a crisis unfolding in society.