Assir Crisis Reflects Deeper Lebanese Divide
Although the Lebanese army successfully eliminated Salafist Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, the societal divide that led to his emergence remains.
There is no doubt that the attack Ahmad al-Assir conducted against the Lebanese army constitutes a stark violation of the law. It was a reckless act at the least, and a criminal act at worst — regardless of whether Assir was one of its masterminds, tools or victims.
In all cases, when considering the dimensions and repercussions of the incident, what happened was a crime against the law, a stark violation of the state and a stab in the heart of the national charter. As it is unacceptable to take the incident lightly and show leniency in regard to the attack on the army, it is equally unacceptable to exaggerate the risk Assir poses as a Salafist and to attempt to link him to the jihadist movements that function under the flag of armed struggle and have become an equivalent of international terrorism.
The wave of Salafism that is sweeping the Arab world is palpable; its momentum feeds on the deep-rooted problems of the Arab and Muslim-Sunni society — including issues such as identity, their position in regard to modernism, the era of colonization, foreign threats and the countermeasures adopted to fend them off.
In fact, the last threat was the Iranian revolution, led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, especially after the Iraqi war and the fall of Iraq into the grip of Iran. The Salafism “phenomenon,” along with all its aspects, finds itself in a controversial relationship with the project of Velayat-e Faqih and the powers under its auspices. It is worth noting that Assir stood out first as a figure that opposed Hezbollah. His criticism of the Lebanese army emanated from the fact that the latter was taking sides with Hezbollah, or rather, in his view, was a subordinate to the party that has strong ties with the Iranian regime.
