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The Fury
Religious fury threatens to wrest control from secular
governments
By Robert Fisk
02/06/06 "The
Independent" -- -- After Syria, the fires fanned
by Denmark's anti-Prophet cartoons spread to Lebanon yesterday
with sectarian intensity.
Anger flashing through the Muslim world over the weekend saw
protesters burn Danish flags and attack buildings from Lahore to
Gaza. The Islamic Army in Iraq, one of the main insurgent
groups, made a blood-curdling call yesterday for violence
against citizens of countries where caricatures of the Prophet
Mohamed have been published.
"We swear to God, if we catch one of their citizens in Iraq, we
will cut him to pieces, to take revenge for Prophet," it said in
an unverified internet statement.
In Lebanon yesterday, 2,000troops fought demonstrators in the
heart of Christian Beirut during the day as the Danish consulate
was set on fire and a large church was attacked by a mob. Other
demonstrators headed for the Lebanese foreign ministry. One
protester at the consulate was trapped by flames and died after
jumping from the third floor.
Yestereday's violence may have been inspired by the previous
day's assaults on the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus
- or were perhaps encouraged by the same Baath party which must
have originally permitted the Syrian demonstrations to take
place.
More likely, the crowds in both cities were allowed by the
authorities to stage protests, but the demonstrators quickly
became overwhelmed as Sunni extremists - in Lebanon, perhaps
from the Salafist Hezb al-Tahrir party in Tripoli, and equally
Wahhabi-minded Palestinians from the Ein el-Helweh refugee camp
- arrived with sticks and stones to assault the Danish property
and then to attack the St Maroun church and march on the
Lebanese foreign ministry.
If this is true, it shows how quickly two nationalist Arab
governments can be challenged by Islamists within their own
countries. The 2,000-strong Lebanese security forces had to be
deployed in east Beirut to fire tear gas and live rounds into
the air to hold back the rioters.
For Lebanon, divided along sectarian lines as it has been since
its creation by the French in the 1920s, it was a grim and
bitter day - perhaps the worst since ex-Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri was assassinated on 14 February last year - which brought
Muslim demonstrators into the centre of Christian east Beirut
where the Danish consulate is - or rather was - located. Burning
fire engines and smashing cars parked in the streets, however,
brought back ugly memories of the 15-year Lebanese civil war.
Little wonder, then, that Charles Rizk, the Justice Minister,
asked angrily: "What is the guilt of the people of Ashrafieh for
cartoons published in Denmark?'' Ashrafieh, needless to say, is
an almost entirely Christian sector of Beirut.
Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese Prime Minister - who, under the
country's unwritten constitution, must be a Sunni - insisted
that this was not the way for Muslims to express their anger.
One Sunni prelate who appeared on the streets in a vain attempt
to calm the demonstrators remarked that "they have done more
damage to the name of the Prophet today than the cartoons in
Denmark''.
Lebanon's Interior Minister, Hassan al-Sabaa, resigned
yesterday, becoming the first political casualty of the crisis.
At least 30 people were arrested and the Lebanese authorities
later announced - predictably - that most were "foreigners".
Whenever any civil unrest occurs in Lebanon, foreigners are
always blamed - just as they were throughout the civil war -
although it will be interesting to see if there are any Syrians
among their number. Christian politicians complain that the
Lebanese government, which knew that there would be
demonstrations, should have dealt more "firmly" with the
demonstrators - for "firmly", read "fatally".
But, in fact, the Lebanese troops managed to avoid shooting any
of the protesters dead; "martyrs" would only have provided room
for more violent demonstrations - and yesterday's battle in east
Beirut was in marked contrast to the way Israeli soldiers deal
with Arab demonstrators. The Lebanese, far from firing bullets
into the surging crowds, pushed them back with water cannons.
There is no doubting that those preposterous cartoons originally
published in Copenhagen last September have lit a small inferno
across the Middle East. In Nablus, Palestinian gunmen stormed
the French cultural centre yesterday. In Qatar, the government
announced it would no longer accept trade delegations from
Denmark. Iran recalled its ambassador from Copenhagen.
Muslim demonstrators could be seen on the streets of Beirut
yesterday with green banners bearing the legend: "Oh Nation of
Mohamed, Wake Up!'' The danger for the West - as well as the
dictatorships and semi-democracies of the Middle East - is that
rather a lot of members of the nation of Mohamed will do just
that.
Syria is a largely Sunni nation ruled by Alawites - a branch of
Shiism - and it is not difficult to see how even minimum
Baathist encouragement of Saturday's demonstrators quickly
turned into a Sunni protest.The Norwegian embassy had demanded
extra protection from Syria - but was not provided with the
security forces it asked for. There will be many questions asked
about this among Europeans in Damascus; for it is the same old
problem: who runs Syria?
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