Asir accuses Syria, allies of launching campaign against him

Imam of Sidon's Bilal bin Rabah mosque Salafist cleric Ahmed al-Asir considered on Tuesday that the campaign against him by the Syrian regime and its allies is linked to his opposing stances. “The allies of the Syrian regime are besieging me” by turning the Sunnis against him, he told the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah newspaper. Asir pointed out that the Syrian regime wants to maintain its hegemony on the Lebanese people by “enslaving them to the regime.” “Anyone who dares to say no or demands his rights will be humiliated and even killed,” he said. Asir stressed that he will continue “struggling until balance returns to the country and peace prevails.” He slammed Hizbullah and AMAL, accusing them of taking over the political decision of the state. “If they continue to dominate the political decision-making through controlling the army, the dignity of the Sunni sect and the state institutions, things will never be set straight,” Asir told the daily. On Friday, the Imam threatened AMAL leader Speaker Nabih Berri and Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah that he “will haunt their nights” if a toy machine gun wasn’t banned from Lebanon. Asir claimed that the toy machine gun features an audio recording that insults Prophet Mohammed’s wife Aisha. Aisha is considered by many Sunnis as the favorite wife of the Prophet, but is unpopular among Shiites, who make up the majority of southern Lebanon’s population. However, the General Security Department issued a communique on Saturday denying that these toys insult a religious figure after launching a probe into the case. It noted that “the claims were not true and not based on facts as they were only rumors.”