Expatriate Lebanese rebukes Syrian account of seminary students’ meeting with Hezbollah
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, January 27, 2005
A Syrian newspaper’s coverage of the meeting of a delegation from San Francisco Theological Seminary with a Hezbollah leader in Lebanon prompted a sharp rebuke by a writer for a Lebanese freedom organization in the United States.
“Why praise Hizbullah too?” wrote Hareth Raad in a commentary posted on the Web site of the Lebanese Information Center in Washington, D.C. “I mean to what new low have we stooped that now, we must not only kiss the sisterly neighbor’s derriere, but we must also praise her demonic child begotten by the evil biological father in Iran.”
Raad’s remarks were aimed mostly at the Syrian Daily Star, a pro-Palestinian newspaper that described the meeting in June in terms that could be viewed as positive both for Hezbollah leader Sheikh Nabil Qaouk and the seminary delegation.
The Layman Online published an account of that meeting on January 26, 2005.
A native of Syria who is “living in political exile in Manhattan,” Raad said, “Like millions of expatriates browsing the Web in search of snatches of information about a place they still burn for as home, I find these articles in newspapers that purportedly tell the truth and opinions that are ostensibly based on freedom.”
However, he added, “when one digs slightly beneath the surface and takes a moment to read between the lines, the ugliness of what has happened to Lebanon over the past 29 years cannot but raise its monstrous head.”
While Hezbollah is on the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorists and blamed for bombings that killed 270 American soldiers, the organization has “official” recognition in Lebanon as a political party. It seeks to convince American visitors especially that its causes are noble and humane.
“Did someone who wrote this miserable attempt at painting a pretty picture forget that the Nazis also took care of their own people?” Raad asked, questioning the intent of the Daily Star article. “Somehow the bandwagon that everyone has been forced onto at gunpoint is now visiting the wonderful social programs established by that very delightful charitable organization unfairly deemed a terrorist entity, our very own Hizbullah – Bravo. Ray Bradbury couldn’t have written better science fiction.”
He suggested that the seminary delegation was gullible. “Just like those reliable witnesses who spot UFOs …, the people interviewed in this article were convinced that those black ninja outfits and the katyusha rockets aimed at Israel were really just eager social workers trying to solve Lebanon’s woes. The flag-burning and chanting of ‘America is the Great Satan’ are also only passionately sung nursery rhymes for the entertainment of orphaned south Lebanese children.”
His letter listed terrorist activities by Hezbollah: “280 Marines, Imad Mughniyyeh, Buenos Aires Embassy bombing, night-vision goggles bought with smuggled American cigarettes and countless hostages staying at the Hotel Shebaa-fornia. One need not even begin to touch on the scandals and treachery surrounding this A-list player of world terrorists before you find some pitiful Lebanese reporter doing the undoable and regressing to be the peon of the puppet regime by praising them unabashedly.”
The Lebanese Information Center is a research and lobbying organization. Its mission statement calls for:
- “A sovereign and independent Lebanon, free from all non-Lebanese forces.
- “Promoting a political system based upon respect to diversity and a freedom to foster development.
- “Establishing a democratic system wherein freedom and Human Rights of individuals and groups are protected and guaranteed.”