Jumblat Strongly Condemns Baisour Incident, Urges Inter-Druze Dialogue

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Monday called for an inter-Druze dialogue about the future of the community, which would pull it out of “seclusion and isolation,” following the Baisour incident which he described as a “barbaric act.”

"After that barbaric act in the town of Baisour which could have happened in any other town, it would be beneficial for the Druze community to launch an internal dialogue about the future of this community," said Jumblat in his weekly editorial in the PSP's al-Anbaa newspaper.

“Where will the descending into ideological dogmatism and bigotry lead us? Where will the culture of the persistent rejection of others lead us? Doesn't that represent a threat to our fate and future?” Jumblat wondered.

He said the "barbaric act in Baisour" requires a stance from clergymen, intellectuals and politicians in order to "pull the Druze out of the state of seclusion and isolation."

"Where is the religious edification that it based on the doctrine of wisdom and which calls for tolerance, moderation and openness?” the Druze leader asked.

He warned that the alternative to inter-Druze dialogue would be “political, cultural and existential extinction in Lebanon and Syria, not to mention what some of Palestine's Druze are doing through their suspicious relations with Israel!”

Rabih al-Ahmed, 39, a Sunni man who hails from the Akkar town of Hrar, was found wounded last week at the square of the Druze town of Baisour in Aley district with his penis cut off.

Lebanese Red Cross medics rushed the man to the West Shahhar Hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The incident happened after Rabih eloped with a woman identified as Rudeina Malaeb, who hails from Baisour. Members of Rudeina's family lured Rabih to the Mount Lebanon town, where they severely beat him up and cut off his penis.

Two of the woman's relatives have been arrested over the incident.

Turning to the political affairs, Jumblat welcomed Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's call for dialogue over a national defense strategy, warning that the alternative to dialogue is “further tensions and divisions and security and political vulnerability.”

But Jumblat stressed that the defense strategy “must eventually contain a formula that confirms the state's authority over the decisions of war and peace, which would also allow the state to benefit from the resistance's capabilities in confronting the Israeli occupation.”