BEIRUT: A pan-Islamist party held a sit-in in support of the Syrian uprising inside Omari Mosque in Beirut Friday, while pro-regime demonstrators gathered outside and chanted in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Around 400 people participated in the sit-in held by Hizb ut-Tahrir in the courtyard of the Omari Mosque in downtown Beirut after Friday noon prayers, and their anti-regime chants were answered by the pro-Assad cries of fewer than 50 demonstrators who were gathered outside the mosque.
“Bashar raised us, he raised us to love Syria,” and “Syria is ours, Bashar is our leader,” were some of the slogans chanted by the mostly Syrian pro-regime demonstrators.
There was a heavy army and security presence outside the mosque, blocking the entrance as well as surrounding the pro-Syrian regime demonstrators and preventing a potential clash between the groups.
“The sit-in taking place inside the mosque does not represent the real views of the Syrian people,” a pro-regime demonstrator, who declined to give his name, told The Daily Star. He added that the anti-regime protest “was interfering in Syrian internal affairs and violating the Taif Accord.”
Security forces prevented media persons from entering the mosque, but the protesters inside could be heard chanting “the Syrian people are one.”
“Our brothers in Syria are being slaughtered,” Mohammad, an anti-regime protester, said on his way out of the Omari Mosque but was ushered away by a Baath party official who requested that the media only cover the pro-regime demonstration.
The death toll has exceeded 1,000 since the beginning of the 10-week popular uprising, according to human rights groups.
Abdul Latif Daouk, a media officer from Hizb ut-Tahrir, said that his party called for a sit-in inside the mosque to avoid security problems. “We don’t want any friction, we just want to express our opinion,” Daouk said.
The media officer said that his party invited all people to attend the event and support the Syrian people but there was no coordination with other Lebanese parties.
Regarding the security forces which were preventing media from entering the mosque, Daouk said “their pretext is that they do not want infiltrators, but it is obvious that there is a pro-Syrian regime security policy in the country,” citing the closure of the Lebanese northern border against Syrian refugees.
According to Daouk, the country’s official system is an accomplice of the Syrian regime against the Syrian people. “The Lebanese are divided between those who are complicit with the regime and those who have failed the uprising by being too cowardly to speak in its favor.”
When asked about his party’s position on Hezbollah’s stance on the Syrian uprising, Daouk said “the resistance’s stance is very dangerous for the future since regimes are ever-changing but the people are not.”
According to Daouk, the Syrian regime is using the resistance as a bargaining chip in order to maintain peace with Israel, and Hezbollah should know that resistance movements are shouldered by the people and not regimes.
Elsewhere, Syrian residents and workers in Lebanon participated in a pro-Syrian regime sit-in, organized by Lebanon’s Arab Youth Party, in the parking lot of City Sportive in Beirut.