{"id":3789,"date":"2014-09-01T06:26:46","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T06:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wp3\/?p=3789"},"modified":"2014-09-01T06:26:46","modified_gmt":"2014-09-01T06:26:46","slug":"lebanese-minister-calls-for-isis-flag-burners-to-face-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sunnionline.us\/english\/2014\/09\/01\/3789\/","title":{"rendered":"Lebanese minister calls for ISIS flag burners to face trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"images\/stories\/news3\/isis_in_iraq.jpg\" border=\"0\" style=\"float: right; margin: 5px;\" \/>Lebanon\u2019s justice minister has called for the \u201csternest punishments\u201d to be applied to individuals who burned the flags of the militant groups the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS) and the Al-Nusra Front in Beirut on Saturday, leading to widespread criticism from politicians and citizens alike.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>  <!--more-->  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The minister, Ashraf Rifi, issued a statement on Saturday in which he called on Lebanon\u2019s state prosecutor to \u201cbring to justice those individuals who burned the ISIS flag in Sassine Square [in Beirut] and inflict the sternest punishments upon them.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He said this was because the flag had the Muslim Shahada (declaration of faith), \u201cThere is no god but God and Muhammad is his Prophet,\u201d written on it, \u201cwhich has nothing to do with ISIS and its terrorist approach,\u201d and that burning it therefore constituted \u201can insult to the religious slogans of the Abrahamic faiths, and could stir up sectarian conflicts,\u201d both of which are prohibited under Lebanese law.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Pictures of three boys burning the flags of ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front circulated on social media websites on Saturday. This burning was apparently in retaliation for the alleged recent beheading of a member of the Lebanese armed forces by ISIS, following clashes between militant groups and the Lebanese army on August 2, which also resulted in the capture of a number of Lebanese soldiers by ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A number of Lebanese MPs criticized Rifi\u2019s statement.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Ibrahim Kanaan, a member of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc, came forward to say he will represent the three boys accused of burning the flags if a case against them makes it to court.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Nabil Naqoula, another Change and Reform member, dismissed Rifi\u2019s response to the incident and asked him to retract his request to the state prosecutor. \u201cThe youths who burned the ISIS flag did not mean to insult the Islamic religion,\u201d Naqoula said, adding that \u201cthis flag does not represent Islam in the slightest.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">For his part, Minister of Employment Sejaan Qazzi said of the incident: \u201cWhat is needed is not the burning of the ISIS flag, but the burning of ISIS itself.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, meanwhile, sent a message addressed to Rifi and Prime Minister Tammam Salam asking both to \u201cbe wary of sectarian conflict and from taking any decisions which could lead to it.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He called on Lebanese Christians to \u201cnot confuse ISIS with Islam, nor the Prophet\u2019s flag with that of ISIS, because Islam is the furthest thing possible from ISIS.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Also echoing calls for calm, Lebanon\u2019s Mufti of Tripoli and the North, Sheikh Malek Al-Sha\u2019ar, dismissed the burning of the flags as an \u201cisolated incident which did not have a political angle.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In a statement on Saturday he said: \u201cWe ask everyone to allow the discourse of the head and the national interest to overpower the discourse of strong emotions and individual conflicts. Our nation is going through a critical period and we need our sons to be wary and for efforts to be made to get us out of this dark tunnel. We also ask everyone to leave these matters to the concerned officials and official and judicial institutions that resolve these kinds of matters within the framework of the law and national stability.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Criticism of Rifi also filled social media websites, with many calling for the minister to resign or be sacked, and others calling for mass protests to burn the militant groups\u2019 flags, using a hashtag in Arabic meaning \u201cBurn it.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">One person, Ahmed Yassin, was surprised by Rifi\u2019s attitude: \u201cSo burning the Hezbollah flag in Tripoli is fine, but burning the ISIS flag is a crime?\u201d he asked.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Another, Emad Bezi, tweeted sarcastically: \u201cAshraf Rifi is asking for those who burned the ISIS flag to be brought to justice\u2014since the embassy from [Abu Bakr] Baghdadi\u2019s state [the \u201cCaliphate\u201d declared by ISIS in Iraq] might resent this, and this might cause a diplomatic crisis between us.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cThe minister, Ashraf Rifi, is incorrect in his assessment,\u201d another, Salman Andary, tweeted. \u201cISIS, which slaughtered a member of the [Lebanese] army, must have its flag burned and its members executed. ISIS is outside Islam anyway.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Source: <em><strong>Asharq Al-Awsat<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lebanon\u2019s justice minister has called for the \u201csternest punishments\u201d to be applied to individuals who burned the flags of the militant groups the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS) and the Al-Nusra Front in Beirut on Saturday, leading to widespread criticism from politicians and citizens alike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lebanese minister calls for ISIS flag burners to face trial - 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