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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Lebanon's religious pluralism figures to deny firm foothold for Al-Qaeda |
| 2008-05-08 |
| Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, declared in an audiotape released on April 21 that Lebanon would be a pivotal battleground in the war against "the crusaders and the Jews," including UN peacekeepers stationed in the South. "There have been three attacks on UN troops in the South since the [expanded] deployment in 2006," says Andrea Tenenti from the press office of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). In June 2007, six peacekeepers from the Spanish contingent were killed in a car bombing in South Lebanon, an attack that was celebrated by Zawahri. An assault on Tanzanian soldiers took place along the Litani River in July of the same year, and a roadside bomb exploded near a UN vehicle before a Lebanese Army checkpoint at the entrance to Sidon in January, wounding two peacekeepers. Although no specific group has been formally accused of the crimes, the attacks have been attributed to Sunni fundamentalists, various movements of which have been around in Lebanon since the 1980s. According to a report by the Saban Center at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, Sunni militancy in Lebanon merged with Salafism - a movement built on the belief that Islam's purest form was practiced during the time of the Prophet Mohammad - when local and foreign Salafist leaders penetrated the generally nonviolent Lebanese Islamist community. "Since its awakening, Salafist militancy in Lebanon was largely defensive and reflected the perceived severity of local crisis conditions," says the report. Today, Salafist recruits include individuals brainwashed into militancy, ordinary outlaws as well as alienated individuals with deep economic and political grievances, says the report. Palestinian refugee camps have proven the most common breeding ground for some forms of Islamist militancy. However, the report claims that such groups are relatively weak, a situation largely attributed to systematic security crackdowns by Lebanese authorities, large-scale foreign aggression against Lebanon, and violent clashes among rival Islamist groups. Sunni Islamist activity has nonetheless been on the rise over the last few years. The brutal 2000 conflict between a group of Islamists and the Lebanese Army in the northern region of Dinniyeh heralded a new dawn of extremism. Most recently, the Lebanese Army fought a bloody three-month battle against the militant Fatah al-Islam group at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli in 2007. Fears of yet another Islamist uprising have been stoked since the latest message from Osama bin Laden's deputy was aired, as it called for rejection of Security Council Resolution 1701, which put an end to the 2006 July war between Lebanon and Israel. To monitor the shaky truce between Lebanon and its southern neighbor, UNIFIL's troop strength was increased from less than 2,000 to more than 13,000. "We take all threats very seriously," says Tenenti, adding that most threats against UNIFIL are video messages posted on the net or sent to the media. "We have been on high alert for some time." UNIFIL has beefed up the number of patrols currently controlling the region south of the Litani to about 300 or so per day. The spokesperson underlines that UNIFIL maintains excellent relations with the local population, providing the people with medical and other services. According to a high-ranking Lebanese security officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, what makes Zawahri's message particularly relevant to Lebanon is his call for transforming the country into a new theater of operations for extremists. However, the officer maintains that the factionalization of the country would greatly limit the ability of fundamentalist groups to freely maneuver on Lebanese soil. "Lebanon has been historically considered by Al-Qaeda as a land of logistic support and not one of jihad," the officer says. "Its pluralistic social structure, consisting of various religious communities, allows for a more tolerant approach to religious practice." Moreover, the officer stresses that the 2007 victory of the Lebanese Army against Fatah al-Islam, which is allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda, was a hard blow to extremist groups, and reduced the chances of another conflict. "This [defeat] will undoubtedly make them [terrorist groups] wary of plotting any new attacks," he says. The source says Lebanese security forces have been able to curb the steady flow of militants from the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in the South to Iraq in recent months. The refugee enclave, known to host some groups with links to Al-Qaeda, is also home to rival extremist factions. In addition, the officer says, Hizbullah's status as a Shiite organization has not prevented it from having influence over certain Sunni factions in the Palestinian camps, and it has used this to shift their support away from Al-Qaeda, further weakening the group's power in the area. "Al-Qaeda has never adopted a formal hierarchy of power. It is usually comprised of different groups united by shared beliefs and a common enemy," the source says. According to the officer, Lebanese security forces have been able to thwart the efforts and arrest members of at least five terrorist cells in the Ain al-Helweh area, each of which consisted of five or six people. The potential for Al-Qaeda-style violence remains closely linked to the issue of armed Palestinians in Lebanon, as militant groups are a violent reality in the country's many camps. But the security officer says that the sphere of Al-Qaeda's influence will always be contained. "The very nature of society in Lebanon," he concludes, "plays against its ability to answer the call of Zawahri." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 They don't need AQ, they've got Hezbollah, that's enough. |
| Posted by: gromky 2008-05-08 02:40 |