Hanin Ghaddar

No one could be happier with Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir’s rising profile than Hezbollah and its leadership in Iran. Al-Assir’s sectarian statements, bullying attitude and defiance of all state authority make Hezbollah look decent, at least to its constituency.

Hezbollah has been suffering from serious setbacks in the past year, due to its stance against the Syrian revolution, corruption within its ranks and the fact that the current government, which it formed in 2010, has not delivered. The party of God desperately needs to connect with its support base in a new way, and they’ve been looking for a new enemy for a while, with Israel on the backburner since 2006.

For more than a year now, Hezbollah’s followers have stopped speaking about the threat of Israel and started to disseminate a new kind of fear: the fear of the Salafists. The Salafists and the Islamists are the new enemy; an enemy that is now, according to the Hezbollah community, the worst threat facing the Shia.
 
So far, it has been much talk about this new “threat” without tangible evidence. Of course the rise of Islamists in the region, mainly Egypt, has raised certain concerns within the Shia community. However, this “threat” was still far from Lebanon, until al-Assir came out.

And what a pleasant surprise he was for Hezbollah. Suddenly, this new enemy that threatens the Shia community more than anything else in the region is now at the gate of the South. From the middle of Saida, the nearest Sunni city to the South, al-Assir emerged to threaten Hassan Nasrallah and Nabih Berri, while starting a sit-in to demand the disarmament of Hezbollah, blocking the highway at Saida's northern entrance and preventing cars from passing.

Hezbollah will probably not do anything to stop al-Assir. They need him now to scare the Shia community and rally it around the party that will protect them from this enemy as it had protected them from other enemies before. At the same time, al-Assir gained popularity and fame only because of Hezbollah’s power and supremacy.

They need each other as they thrive on each other’s sectarian rhetoric and empty threats. Because of Nasrallah’s intimidation of the Sunni street during the May 7 events of 2008, hatred was born under the surface, and al-Assir is today harvesting the results of four years of humiliation. Four years during which the March 14 camp consented to a national unity government and then watched Hezbollah completely take over nearly all state institutions.

Four years in which former PM Saad Hariri left Lebanon, essentially abandoning the Sunni street without actual leadership, until al-Assir and his likes came to fill the gap. Four years during which we all saw people in the Arab world rising up to demand freedom and dignity while we had to watch in silence and frustration.

Of course al-Assir will find attentive ears and welcoming arms within the Sunni community. March 14 politicians abandoned the street and stopped listening when moderate rhetoric could still work. Hezbollah silenced them, and they did not protest. Fear ate them up when people around the region were tearing down walls of fear. March 14 failed.

Now people like al-Assir are taking advantage of both March 14’s failure and Hezbollah’s power. He is the result of both. March 14 will probably face more difficulties now in convincing the Sunnis that they are better than al-Assir. March 14 will also find it hard proving to the Christians that Islamists are not much of a threat as Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun has been saying they are for the past few years.

However, because of al-Assir’s threats and fiery rhetoric, Hezbollah will only get stronger because its leaders and allies are going to build on fears of Islamists until the upcoming elections in 2013.

Those who feel disillusioned by March 14 should reconsider support for al-Assir. When he escalated his rhetoric against Hezbollah, his popularity rose everywhere, even outside the Sunni community. The Lebanese should know better; the enemy of my enemy is not always my friend. A leader who places women in a segregated area cannot be a good example. His fierce attack against Hezbollah and its arms is not enough for us to endorse him or support his movement.

Both al-Assir and Hezbollah are using their communities to advance personal and political agendas, as much as they are using each other. Frustration with Hezbollah’s arms is understandable, but al-Assir is certainly not the best solution.

Both Nasrallah and al-Assir feed on our fears and instincts. One tells his people that they are the most honored and the other lobbies his supporters around the importance of their dignity. Between honor and dignity, we seem to be losing our common sense.

Hanin Ghaddar is the managing editor of NOW Lebanon