
Annoncering
Annoncering
Lebanese singer Fadel Shaker brags about killing two Lebanese soldiers.Assir’s main contention is that the LAF, though harbouring all religious sects within its ranks, is terrorising Sunnis alongside Hezbollah, the Shia political militant group who have a stranglehold on Lebanon. Assir's fears are shared by many of the country's large Sunni population and haven't exactly been alleviated by reports that the LAF and Hezbollah joined forces in this week's fight for Sidon. Meanwhile, the situation has been exacertbated by the civil war in neighbouring Syria. There, the majority Sunni population is engaged in a civil war with the forces of widely despised leader Bashar al-Assad – forces that include fighters from Hezbollah. The region as a whole is slowly dividing itself along sectarian lines.While this resentment is likely to linger, for Assir, it is now essentially game over. His drastic and extraordinary decision to attack the military has not only cost him the support of Sunni moderates but has also placed a price and arrest warrant on his head that no kind of YouTube-based PR drive will be able to shake off.To understand how Assir rose to the kind of position from which a man feels comfortable ordering an attack on his country's army, you also have to understand Hezbollah's rise to power. In 2008, they forced the collapse of the Lebanese government and they still face allegations from a UN-backed court that, three years prior to that, they assassinated Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. Since then, Iranian and Syrian influences have come to dominate and dictate domestic affairs and Lebanon's de facto leader – the assassinated Prime Minister’s son, Saad Hariri – remains in hiding after (you guessed it) another failed assassination attempt.
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Sunni Cleric Ahmad al-Assir lashes out at the Lebanese Armed Forces.Assir has taken advantage of a Sunni power vacuum in Lebanon. All moderates tend to be pushed to the sides by extremists like him, whose popularity – until they decide to instruct personal militias to attack the army – is allowed to grow to the detriment of the middle ground. Assir started his rise from small-time cleric to media sweetheart and wannabe warlord two years ago, luring in frustrated Sunnis with protests and fiery rhetoric aimed squarely at Hezbollah and the Syrian regime they're currently helping to prop up. His attack on the military has shocked and appalled many people within Lebanon, even those who agree with his positions on Hezbollah and Syria. However, Assir also has a large amount of support from hardline Sunnis who see him as a political counter-weight to Hezbollah.Assir is a clown and the Lebanese media was his circus, and any legitimate concerns he may have had about Hezbollah or Syria have now been blown out of the water. The man will now probably not see Lebanese soil again for many years to come. The worrying thing is how quickly Assir grew in popularity among Lebanese moderates who, despite his vehement fundamentalism and propensity for violence, often referred to him as “cute”, “funny” or “harmless”, like he was some sort of insane Wahabi Boris Johnson.
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But if Assir is the clown, then Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is its ringmaster. With Sunni/Shi’ite relations at an all-time low across the world, Lebanon is at risk of all-out civil war, with pockets of violence frequently flaring up in Sidon, Tripoli and the Bekaa Valley. And while Assir is right about the true nature of Hezbollah and their poisonous effect on Lebanon, installing him in their place would just be replacing one group of crazy, bearded Islamists with guns with another group of crazy, bearded Islamists with guns.Lebanon needs to take a step back from the brink – it may not have the capacity to recover from another long and brutal civil war. Disarming militias and national unity should be a national priority – instead, however, all we've seen for years is more bloodshed.Follow Oz (@OzKaterji) and Sam (@sam_to_the_t) on Twitter.People in Lebanon Are Killing Each Other Over SyriaOn the Lam in LebanonPaintballing with Hezbollah