KALEIDOSCOPE

The demise of “free” Lebanon?

Nasrine R. Karim

The catastrophic humanitarian crisis has unfolded in Lebanon as more than 27,000 Palestinians have been displaced, 20,000 of whom have sought shelter in the neighbouring camp at Beddawi. Eight to ten thousand residents remain trapped in Nahr al-Bared, which has had much of its infrastructure destroyed. The siege — first mounted on May 20th for destroying the "Sunni Jihadist group" Fatah al-Islam — an organisation nobody seems to be familiar with outside Lebanon.
   No aid can be delivered in the area. Palestine Red Crescent has managed to rescue only thirty people - women, children, the old and the injured. The United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) is concerned that large areas of the camp, including UNRWA compound, could be booby-trapped or littered with unexploded bombs and shells. It is the man-made plight of Lebanon again!
   The spectacular re-building of war-shattered Lebanon by assassinated Prime Minister Rafik Harriri was systematically destroyed by the war between Hezbollah and the IDF within days last year. The Israelis entered Lebanon, seemingly to rescue its two soldiers allegedly abducted by the Hezbollah. The Israeli armed forces destroyed the South of Lebanon in an attempt to destroy the Hezbollah stronghold. The IDF was forced to withdraw and the two soldiers are still incarcerated. Now suddenly a new fraction of militants appeared on the scene: "Fatah Al Islam" and consequently more killings of Palestinians took place. These militants also shot at Palestinians fleeing the war zone!
   Fatah al-Islam has declared that it will spread its fight to other refugee camps. This would not only threaten more bloodshed, but, raise the possibility of Lebanese military attacks on more Palestinian camps and the entry of the Lebanese army into the camps. An invasion of the camp would be in breech of a 39-year-old agreement excluding Lebanese forces. The fighting was the bloodiest since last year's US-backed Israeli war against the Shiite Hezbollah militia levelled much of southern Lebanon as well as sections of Beirut and other cities. The clashes are the worst in Lebanon's north since the country's sectarian civil war of 1975-90.
   The government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora immediately blamed Syria for the violence, claiming that Damascus was deliberately creating instability in Lebanon to undermine UN moves to set up an international court to try suspects in the 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Siniora declared: "The blows dealt by Fatah al-Islam against the Lebanese army are a premeditated crime and a dangerous attempt to destabilise [Lebanon]."
   Syria has denied any connection to Fatah al-Islam and shut two of its border crossings from Lebanon in response to the fighting. The group's leader Shaker al-Abssi was reportedly jailed in 2003 by Damascus for plotting against the Syrian government. He fled to Lebanon last year after being released and is currently wanted in Syria on new charges. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moualem told the media: "Our forces have been after them, even through Interpol. We reject this organisation. It does not serve the Palestinian cause and it is not after liberating Palestine." (Fatah al-Islam apparently leans towards Islamic extremism and makes no secret of its sympathy for Al Qaeda, but publicly denies any organisational link.) The Lebanese government blamed Fatah al-Islam for twin bus bombings in a Christian area outside Beirut in February.
   It is quite possible that sections of the Siniora government have deliberately provoked the current confrontation and blamed Syria in order to refocus international attention on Lebanon. Siniora called on the UN to set up the Hariri tribunal despite the failure of the Lebanese parliament to approve the measure. At the same time, clashes enable the army to weaken further Fatah al-Islam and tighten security around Palestinian camps throughout the country.
   According to the London-based The Times, dozens of supporters of the Future Movement led by Saad Hariri, the son and political heir of Rafik Hariri, gathered outside the refugee camp. Walid Hussein told the newspaper: "We are here to help the army. We have been carrying ammunition and water to them." Others have been egging the army on to demolish the camp. "We wish the government would destroy the whole camp and the rest of the camps. Nothing good comes out of the Palestinians," Ahmad al-Marooq declared to the New York Times. He obviously does not think like his father!
   There are 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, into which an estimated 350,000 people are crammed. The refugees, who were driven out of Israel in the late 1940s, and their descendents live in appalling squalor, with limited rights to work and a lack of basic services. Lebanon's former UN ambassador Khalil Makkawi told CNN: "The situation speaks for itself. Those camps have become fertile ground for the fundamentalists, the extremists."
   Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker Magazine wrote in his lengthy article "The Redirection" published in February of a subtle US connection to the Fatah Al Islam group. Interestingly, in all the other media debate about the backers of Fatah al-Islam, there was no mention of the US connection raised by veteran journalist Seymour Hersh provided a detailed account of the Bush administration's shift in Middle East strategy following the US mid-term congressional elections last November. In a bid to intensify pressure on Iran, Washington engaged in a flurry of diplomatic moves aimed at securing an alliance of so-called "Sunni States", including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, to isolate the Shiite regime in Tehran. Backing for the fragile Siniora Government in Lebanon, where there was actually a widespread support for Hezbollah was a focus of the US strategy. The Siniora Govt. had been seriously weakened by the failed Israeli invasion.
   As Hersh pointed out the new US strategy was not limited to diplomacy, but included covert backing for Sunni extremist groups against Shiite Hezbollah. The Saudi Monarchy was apparently closely involved, providing funding through its Sunni allies in Lebanon.
   Hersh explained: "American, European and Arab officials I spoke to, told me that the Siniora government and its allies allowed some of the aid to end up in the hands of emerging Sunni radical groups in northern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and around Palestinian camps in the south. These groups, though small, are seen as a buffer to Hezbollah; at the same time, their ideological ties are with Al Qaeda."
   The question here is, then, who actually funds Al-Qaeda and its feared leader Ossama Bin Laden? The face that launched wars, killing tens and thousands of innocent people, against Afghanistan and Iraq? The White House surely has no compunction in forming in a de facto alliance with Sunni fanatics who pay homage to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda or do they?
   Hersh quoted former British intelligence officer Alastair Crooke who pointed, in particular, to the emergence of Fatah al-Islam at the Nahr al-Bared camp last year: "The Lebanese government is opening space for these people to come in. It could be very dangerous... I was told that within twenty four hours, they were being offered weapons and money by people presenting themselves as representatives of the Lebanese government's interests, presumably to take on Hezbollah."
   It cannot be verified whether such an offer was made. But it is not out of the question that the US administration, in league with the Siniora government and the Saudi monarchy, would want to manipulate an Al Qaeda-linked militia for their own political purposes. After all, the origins of Al Qaeda seemingly lie in the CIA's massive holy war against the Soviet-backed regime in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
   Last November, Dick Cheney made a snap one-day trip to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah and his top aides. While publicly the visit was to reassure the Saudis that the US was not going to pull out of Iraq, the real agenda may have been on countering Iranian influence throughout the region. Along with Israel, Saudi Arabia is allegedly a central element in the US strategy as a rallying point for other "moderate" Sunni states and a source of finance for clandestine operations throughout the region. The more aggressive Saudi stance has provoked sharp conflicts in ruling circles in Riyadh, leading to the abrupt resignation in December of the country's ambassador to the US, Prince Turki al-Faisal, who reportedly favours easing, rather than heightening, tensions with Iran.
   According to Hersh, the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia have developed an informal agreement about the new strategic direction, which includes security guarantees to Israel, US support for Sunni nations in the Middle East to counteract Iranian influence and Saudi efforts to rein in Hamas. The Saudi Monarchy brokered a deal in Mecca recently to form a coalition Palestinian government between Hamas and Fatah as a step toward negotiations with the Israeli government.
   A major focus of the US strategy is to weaken the Syrian government of President Bashir Assad and his alliance with Iran, and to undermine the influence of Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Bush administration actively encouraged Israel's savage bombardment and invasion of Lebanon last year as the opening shot in a broader campaign against Syria and Iran. Even Siniora at the time refused to meet with Condoleeza Rice as the destruction of his country was mind- boggling. But in a significant blow to US plans, Israel failed to destroy Hezbollah, which emerged from the rubble with heightened political stature.
   In an interview on Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio, Seymour Hersh described Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah as "the single most popular figure among Sunnis and Shias" in the Middle East."
   A former senior American intelligence official told Hersh: "We are in a program to enhance Sunni capacity to resist Shiite influence, and we're spreading money around as much as we can... In this process, we're financing a lot of bad guys with some serious potential unintended consequences. We don't have the ability to determine and get pay vouchers signed by the people we like and avoid the people we don't like. It's a very high-risk venture."
   An article in the London-based daily The Telegraph last month confirmed that President Bush had given the green light to the CIA to provide financial and logistical support to the Lebanese Prime Minister. The classified presidential order "authorises the CIA and other US intelligence agencies to fund anti-Hezbollah groups in Lebanon and pay for activists who support the Siniora government. The secrecy of the finding means that US involvement in the activities is officially deniable."
   Need we say more? The next thing we shall see that there is a move to set up a US base in Lebanon to oversee the whole of the Middle East and who will be the real beneficiary? Their allies - the Israelis! How pat!

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Professor Sirajul Huq

Undoubtedly, the fundamental secret of Imam Khomeini's success and popularity was his complete attention towards Almighty Allah. When a human being believes that everything, including himself, has been created by Allah and that He is Lord of all the creatures, he negates any kind to independence and becomes a servant of Him in its true sense. In this case, such a person would never, even for a second, gives up or neglects his responsibility of servitude towards and worship of Allah. In other words, the spirit of worship is that a person must bear in mind the satisfaction of his Lord in all aspects of his life.
   Islamic Gnosticism in its correct meaning has its roots in the moral education of the Imams and the saints. Practically, following such human beings who possess a lofty status and divine insight and knowledge, leads a human being to prosperity and salvation. Examining the Gnostic and spiritual aspects of the Imam's personality is impossible without bearing in mind this important point.
   Imam Khomeini (may his soul rest in peace), from his early youth and his first years at Arak Theological School and, later, Qum Theological School, due to the fact that he had a good and suitable family and education genuinely attempted to purify his soul and undergo an internal holy struggle. In his youth and throughout his studies he found the opportunity to study under one of the Gnostic and prominent personalities, Ayatollah Shahabadi. The Imam respected this great personality and attached much importance to his lessons, for he was studying under a person who him-self had passed several stages of Gnosticism and spirituality.
   When he was twenty-seven, Imam Khomeini compiled his first Gnostic work entitled Sharhe Do' aye Sahar when he was thirty-five years old he wrote the commentaries as Sharhe Phosous al-Hekam and Mesbah al-Uns which is one of the famous Gnostic works by Mohi ad-din Arabi and this work was considered to be very unusual for such a person at such a young age. Imam Khomeini was able to carry out all these projects due to his purification of his soul as well as his attention to Allah. It is certain that when a person attempts to lead an ummah, and become the origin of a basic change in the path of Islamic history after a period of over 1400 years, he needs the blessings of Allah, which can be acquired only through real faith in and reliance upon Him.
   Real belief in Allah will be brought about when a person seriously attempts to acquire it. Faith and pious deeds, when accompanied by knowledge, will become the basis of each human beings prosperity and salvation. Proceeding in this path necessitates undergoing great sufferings and problems, and requires a great spiritual capacity, which can only be achieved by continuous building up of ones own self and his continuous reliance on Allah.
   Imam Khomeini brought about such conditions in himself. He was truly a human being who relied upon the One Lord and who believed in the righteousness of the path he was following. Freedom-loving Gnostics have no other aim but becoming nearer to their Creator. The way to achieve this lofty goal is that the person should continuously think of Allah, and lmam Khomeini fulfilled these conditions.
   His uprising and Revolution, his lessons and his discussions, his poems and books, were all based on the axis of acquiring Allah's satisfaction. In consideration of the spiritual aspect of the Imam's personality, his simple way of living and his devotedness possess a special status. His simple way of life astonished those who visited his residence for the first time. It is said that he performed his night prayers (which is done before dawn) faithfully, prayers which are highly recommended in Islamic narration's and which were compulsory for the Prophet (S.A.W.). Even when Imam Khomeini was returning from France to Iran, he recited his night prayer in the plane.
   In most of his meetings with various people and national and international figures, he always talked about purification of ones soul, piety and paying attention to Allah. It was as a result of this very relationship with Allah that he was able to confront the superpowers and to expose their falseness to the oppressed people of the world.
   Imam Khomeini-kindness and humility towards the masses, especially the oppressed masses of society, is a good example of how he followed the path of the great Prophet of Islam. His sincerity and devotion towards the combatants in tile path of Islam can be mentioned as one of the manifestations of his Gnosticism. On the occasion of one of the victories achieved by the combatants of Islam in the imposed Iraqi war he said:
   "I kiss your hands, which are supported by Allah and the divine angels, and are proud of this."
   The purity and softness of the late Imam's spirit was to the extent that when a memorial was held for the leader of the martyrs, Imam Hossain (A.S.) and his sufferings in Karbala were recounted, he would shed sincere tears of sorrow. He had reached a high level of certainty from the viewpoint of believing in Allah and metaphysics and Gnosticism. He believed that the entire world belongs to Allah, and bore in mind His fear and recalled Him. He was never frightened of any power except Allah. This was why he acquired such a high spirit that he ascended from the earth towards His Lord.

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