Lebanese Shiite intellectuals form front against Hezbollah

BEIRUT: A meeting of around 60 Shiite public figures in Beirut, including university professors, writers, journalists and business people, has triggered a series of negative responses on social media.

The group said: “We are a group of democratic Lebanese citizens from the Shiite community, and our main concern is the establishment of a just and capable state, and the Shiite community is but a part of our work and activity, especially as parliamentary elections approach with an electoral law which still requires candidates to have sectarian affiliation.”

The response on social media — accusations of “treason” and cries of “embassy’s Shiites,” a derisory term used by Hezbollah to discredit its opponents by implying they are in the pay of foreign governments — was expected, according to Harith Sulaiman, an academic and one of the prominent group members.

“We face offensive rumors if we take an independent stand against the Shiite duo of Hezbollah and Amal. We know we’ll pay for it,” he said. “I have been a political activist and patriot for the last 40 years; I studied in France and I might have had certain ambitions, but I did not try to achieve my goals through either of the two Shiite powers... I do not want to follow either of them.”

The group stated that their meeting was “evidence we don’t plan on establishing a political party or a Shiite organization, but that we are keen on finding a political climate that is convenient for all Lebanese people and through which they can perform their duties and receive their rights. Our meeting today is not a fleeting one, but the beginning of establishing a national opposition front that will correct the division of Lebanese politics.