Report: Nusra Front Demands al-Rahi's Apology over Burning of ISIL Flag
Al-Nusra Front is reportedly demanding Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi to apologize for the burning of an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant flag by youth in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh district.
Sources close to the Muslim Scholars Committee said in comments published in the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Tuesday that “the group (al-Nusra Front) will not release the soldiers and policemen without anything in return.”
Media reports have said that the jihadists have a list of demands, including the withdrawal of Hizbullah from battles in Syria, the release of ten Syrian inmates held at Roumieh prison in return for each captive soldier and policeman, an apology from al-Rahi over the burning of the flag and the end of calls by the Free Patriotic Movement to mobilize Christians against the Syrian people.
Islamists have allegedly burned crosses in the northern city of Tripoli in retaliation to the burning of an ISIL flag in Ashrafiyeh's Sassine Square.
Reports said however that the flag was burned last month and not over the weekend.
Several threats were written on the walls of Churches in the northern city of Tripoli, the latest on Tuesday when assailants vandalized the walls of Mar Elias Church.
They vowed to “slaughter the worshipers of the Cross."
Lebanese Forces lawmaker George Adwan had said that al-Rahi “will not address these people,” considering that the apology demand will not occur.
Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi vowed to legally pursue the youth who set ablaze the flag, considering it a sectarian incitement. He also called for an investigation to be carried out into the burning of crosses in Tripoli.
For his part, FPM official MP Ibrahim Kanaan said that he will defend the youth who set ablaze the flag.
The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group has prompted widespread concern as it advances in both Syria and Iraq, killing hundreds of people, including in gruesome beheading and mass executions.
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