The death toll from the blast in Beirut’s southern suburbs rose to 24 on Friday, making it the deadliest attack in Lebanon [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/lebanon/index.html ] in decades. Most people here saw the attack as payback for Hezbollah’s military support for the government of President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war in neighboring Syria.
Mr. Nasrallah insisted that the attack had not affected the group’s position. “If you think that by killing our women, by killing our children, by killing our innocents” that Hezbollah will back down from its support of the Syrian government, “you are wrong,” he said.
In fact, he said, such attacks would lead Hezbollah to double the size of its forces in Syria, where he said they were fighting takfiris, or extremists, who consider all but those who follow their school of thought heretics.
“If this battle with these takfiri terrorists requires that I and all of Hezbollah go to Syria, we will go to Syria,” he shouted.
The powerful explosion on Thursday has exacerbated fears that the sectarian war in Syria could set off similar violence in Lebanon. The attack, and Mr. Nasrallah’s new emphasis on his group’s battle against Sunni extremists, also underlines how much its decision to intervene in Syria has complicated its status at home.
In short, Hezbollah has more enemies than it used to have.
Founded as a popular movement to fight Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon, Hezbollah, while firmly based in Lebanon’s Shiite community, has long tried to portray itself as a national resistance movement that exists to protect all Lebanese. The strength of its fighters, who constitute Lebanon’s strongest military force, once made them — and Mr. Nasrallah — heroes throughout the Arab world.
That standing took a blow, however, when the group declared its support for Mr. Assad early in the uprising against his rule in 2011 and declined further as Hezbollah fighters joined Syrian forces on the battlefield against the Syrian rebels, who are primarily Sunni.
Many people in Lebanon have criticized Hezbollah for, in their view, veering from its primary role: fighting Israel. Given the deep sympathies of Lebanon’s Sunnis for their brethren in Syria, many have increasingly come to see Hezbollah as the enemy.
But those tensions were scarcely mentioned on Friday as Hezbollah held its annual commemoration of its 2006 war with Israel. Thousands of people from nearby villages and beyond packed a central square to listen to martial music and to Mr. Nasrallah’s speech, which was delivered by a live video link from an undisclosed location.
Much of the village was destroyed during the 2006 war, but Hezbollah has rebuilt it, and new two- and three-story houses line the main street.
Residents display a strong mix of rural hospitality, insistently inviting visitors into their homes for meals and coffee, and of distrust born from years of occupation by a foreign army and an ever-present fear of spies. Almost no one agreed to provide his full name when interviewed.
Many residents wrote off the talk of sectarian tensions in Lebanon, instead putting the blame for the region’s problems on Hezbollah’s traditional enemies.
“All of these splits were caused by Israel and America because they keep trying out new strategies, and now they are trying to split the Sunnis and the Shiites,” said Ali, a 34-year-old lawyer.
Like many here, he saw Hezbollah’s role in Syria as essential to its fight against Israel, not a distraction from it. “The war in Syria is not to defend Bashar al-Assad. It is to defend the axis of resistance,” he said.
"In Beirut, Lebanon, Kamel Wazne, the founder of the Center for American Strategic Studies, said that fighters are inspired by religious passions rooted in the seventh-century battle in what is now Iraq over who would succeed the Prophet Muhammad."
The Difference Between Alawites and Sunnis in Syria Why is there Sunni-Alawite tension in Syria?
By Primoz Manfreda, About.com Guide
The differences between Alawites and Sunnis in Syria have sharpened dangerously since the beginning of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, whose family is Alawite. The reason for tension is primarily political, rather than religious: top position in Assad’s army are held by Alawite officers, while most of the rebels from the Free Syrian Army .. http://middleeast.about.com/od/syria/p/Syrias-Armed-Opposition-Free-Syrian-Army.htm .. come from Syria’s Sunni majority.
Geographical Presence: Alawites are a Muslim minority group that accounts for around 12% of Syria’s population, with a few small pockets in Lebanon and Turkey (though not to be confused with Alevis .. http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/islam/countries/bl_TurkeyAlevi.htm , a Turkish Muslim minority). Around 70% of Syrians belongs to Sunni Islam, as does almost 90% of all Muslims in the world).
Historical Alawite heartlands lie in the mountainous hinterland of Syria’s Mediterranean coast in the country’s west, next to the coastal city of Latakia. Alawites form the majority in Latakia province, although the city itself is mixed between Sunnis, Alawites and Christians. Alawites also have a sizeable presence in the central province of Homs and in the capital Damascus.
Doctrinal Differences: Alawites practice a unique but little known form of Islam that dates back to the 9th and 10th century. Its secretive nature is an outcome of centuries of isolation from the mainstream society and periodical persecution by the Sunni majority.
Sunnis believe that succession to prophet Mohammed .. http://islam.about.com/od/muhammad/tp/bio_muhammad2.htm .. (d. 632) rightly followed through the line of his most able and pious companions. Alawites follow the Shiite interpretation, claiming that succession should have been based on bloodlines. According to Shiite Islam, Mohammed’s only true heir, imam, was his son-in-law Ali bin Abu Talib .. http://islam.about.com/od/history/p/alibinabutalib.htm .
But Alawites take a step further in the veneration of Imam Ali, allegedly investing him with divine attributes. Other specific elements such as the belief in divine incarnation, permissibility of alcohol, celebration of Christmas and Zoroastrian new year makes Alawite Islam highly suspect in the eyes of many orthodox Sunnis and Shiites.
.. while the contention the "tension is primarily political, rather than religious" .. it is also stated in the one this replies to .. "The Syrian war fuels, and is fueled by, broader antagonisms that are primarily rooted not in sect but in clashing geopolitical and strategic interests: the regional power struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran; Iran’s confrontation with the West over its nuclear program; and the alliance between Hezbollah and the secular Syrian government .. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/world/middleeast/syrian-army-and-hezbollah-step-up-raids-on-rebels.html .. of Mr. Assad against American-backed Israel." .. the tension is no doubt fueled by religious belief/affiliation .. the reason for this post is simply to have here again exactly the doctrinal differences between Alawite and "many orthodox Sunnis and Shiites.".. it appears conflict in the area is a hellish mix of geopolitical and religious conflict .. one helluva mess .. whatever you want to put the cause down to ..
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