Militants merge with mainstream
Guardian
*Hizbullah emerges as symbol of resistance
*Anger at Israel's actions unites Shias and Sunnis
Nour, a 19-year-old university student, came with two friends to one of Cairo's biggest squares on Thursday night carrying Lebanese and Hizbullah flags. "This is the first time I ever take part in a protest," she said.
It was organised by Artists and Writers for Change, a liberal movement which campaigns for reform in Egypt. Its members, who include Youssef Chahine Egypt's foremost film director, are precisely the type of "mainstream" people that Tony Blair was pinning his hopes on earlier this week as a bulwark against extremism. As a result of the bombing of Lebanon they are now venting their wrath against Israel and the US and waving Hizbullah flags.
The anger in Egypt ranges across the spectrum from the Muslim Brotherhood - which has offered to "send immediately 10,000 mujahideen to fight the Zionists alongside Hizbullah" - to business associations. Chambers of commerce and trade unions have organised gala dinners to raise money for war victims and the two mobile operators, MobiNil and Vodafone, have set up a premium-rate hotline whose profits are sent to Lebanon.
Dial the number and you hear Fairouz, the Lebanese diva, singing Bahibak Ya Libnan (I love you, Lebanon), followed by instructions for making further donations. In less than a week there have been more than 33,000 calls.
Whatever qualms Arabs once had about Hizbullah they have since been dissipated by Israel's attacks, the hundreds of deaths, the sight of up to a quarter of the Lebanese population fleeing their homes, and especially the bombing of UN observers and the massacre at Qana.
The Shia organisation and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, have become symbols of resistance even in such unlikely places as the Gulf countries where Sunnis and Shias have been spotted waving the yellow-and-green flag. Christians are joining in as well. In Damascus yesterday, a Catholic church held a special mass. "Pray for the resistance, pray for Hassan Nasrallah. He is defending justice," Father Elias Zahlawi urged his congregation. Read more
db: In London today the quantity of "We are all Hizbullah now" placards was only exceeded by the ubiquitous "Bush the No1 Terrorist" variety. Blair's Britain is an increasingly surreal place to live.
*Hizbullah emerges as symbol of resistance
*Anger at Israel's actions unites Shias and Sunnis
Nour, a 19-year-old university student, came with two friends to one of Cairo's biggest squares on Thursday night carrying Lebanese and Hizbullah flags. "This is the first time I ever take part in a protest," she said.
It was organised by Artists and Writers for Change, a liberal movement which campaigns for reform in Egypt. Its members, who include Youssef Chahine Egypt's foremost film director, are precisely the type of "mainstream" people that Tony Blair was pinning his hopes on earlier this week as a bulwark against extremism. As a result of the bombing of Lebanon they are now venting their wrath against Israel and the US and waving Hizbullah flags.
The anger in Egypt ranges across the spectrum from the Muslim Brotherhood - which has offered to "send immediately 10,000 mujahideen to fight the Zionists alongside Hizbullah" - to business associations. Chambers of commerce and trade unions have organised gala dinners to raise money for war victims and the two mobile operators, MobiNil and Vodafone, have set up a premium-rate hotline whose profits are sent to Lebanon.
Dial the number and you hear Fairouz, the Lebanese diva, singing Bahibak Ya Libnan (I love you, Lebanon), followed by instructions for making further donations. In less than a week there have been more than 33,000 calls.
Whatever qualms Arabs once had about Hizbullah they have since been dissipated by Israel's attacks, the hundreds of deaths, the sight of up to a quarter of the Lebanese population fleeing their homes, and especially the bombing of UN observers and the massacre at Qana.
The Shia organisation and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, have become symbols of resistance even in such unlikely places as the Gulf countries where Sunnis and Shias have been spotted waving the yellow-and-green flag. Christians are joining in as well. In Damascus yesterday, a Catholic church held a special mass. "Pray for the resistance, pray for Hassan Nasrallah. He is defending justice," Father Elias Zahlawi urged his congregation. Read more
db: In London today the quantity of "We are all Hizbullah now" placards was only exceeded by the ubiquitous "Bush the No1 Terrorist" variety. Blair's Britain is an increasingly surreal place to live.
posted by exoplanet at 8:35 PM
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