Four Dar al-Fatwa Shiekhs attacked in Beirut

Four Sunni Muslim scholars were beaten up in two separate attacks in Beirut on Sunday night [March 17], testing a fragile peace between the sects and factions in Lebanon.            

Mazen Hariri and Ahmed Fekhran, both scholars at Lebanon's highest Sunni seat of learning, Dar al-Fatwa, were attacked by a group of men in Khandak al-Ghamik area after they left the Mohammed al-Amin mosque in downtown Beirut, security sources said on Monday.             

Ibrahim Abdul-Latif and Omar Imani, also Sunni scholars,  were assaulted in Shiyah, a district in southern Beirut.             

The two main Shi'ite parties in Lebanon, Hezbollah and Amal, were quick to condemn the attacks and handed over five suspects to security forces, the sources said. They said the five men had been under the influence of drugs.                

The extent of the injuries inflicted on the Sunni sheikhs was not clear, but a photo of two of them posted on Facebook showed one in a neck brace and the other with a bruised face.             

Lebanon's Grand Mufti Mohammad Rashid Qabbani said on Monday the attacks were the result of a "political war" by Sunni and Shi'ite leaders. He described condemnations of the perpetrators as insufficient and demanded swift action.             

Prime Minister Najib Mikati, said on his Twitter account that the assailants would be held accountable as countrywide protests briefly erupted late on Sunday night.                 

The two-year-old conflict in neighboring Syria - which pits mainly Sunni Muslims against President Bashar al-Assad, who comes from the Shi'ite-derived Alawite sect - has deepened divisions in Lebanon between some Sunnis and Shi'ites.


REUTERS/LBCI