Posts Tagged ‘Antoun Saade’
Story of assassination of Bashir Gemayel in Sept. 14, 1982
La mort de Bachir Gémayel et la survie de son assassin
Habib Tanions ‘Chartouni’, l’assassin du Président élu Bachir Gémayel, condamné à mort par contumace 35 ans après les faits.
Après l’annonce du verdict, le parti Kataëb (Phalanges, fondé par Pierre Gemayel, père de Bachir, en 1936), “célèbrera le triomphe du droit et de la justice en se réunissant place Sassine”.
La famille du président assassiné a ensuite prévu de se rendre dans sa ville d’origine, Bikfaya, pour déposer une copie du verdict sur la tombe du président assassiné. 35 ans ! Pourquoi tant de temps ? (Pouquoi maintenant?)
Les faits sont têtus.
Comme il l’avait fait chaque mardi, durant les 7 ans de guerre, sauf depuis son élection par manque de temps, le Président-élu Bachir Gémayel se rendit ce 14 septembre 1982 à 16 heures au Markaz ([1]) d’Achrafieh (Headquarter) pour s’adresser à la population du quartier.
Il tenait à les saluer une dernière fois et voulait rendre hommage à Jean ‘Nader’ qui en était le « patron ». Le matin même, Bachir avait vertement rabroué Zahi ‘Boustani’ ([2]) qui s’obstinait à le faire changer d’horaires par simple mesure de sécurité,
– Je n’en peux plus ! s’était-il écrié. Tu me traques tout le temps ! Est-ce que l’on va également entrer avec moi à Baabda ([3]) et m’accompagner partout où je vais ?
En tout début d’après-midi, ce même 14 septembre, à leur descente d’avion spécial en provenance de Lood, des instructeurs militaires israéliens furent bloqués par les hommes du Jihaz el-A’men ([4]) de faction à l’aéroport.
Ils avaient voyagé avec Ménachem ‘Navot (qui avait pour nom de code Mendy), le tout nouveau N°2 du Mossad.
Durant le vol, les instructeurs, en civil, lui avaient expliqué qu’ayant formé les « body-gards » de Bachir Gémayel depuis trois mois, ils se rendaient à Beyrouth, comme l’exigeait le programme d’entraînement, pour contrôler si ce qu’ils leur avaient enseigné était appliqué.
Mendy intervint auprès des libanais en expliquant qu’il devait s’agir d’une erreur. L’officier de la sécurité fut intraitable, Il brandissait un message impératif qui leur était adressé : « Ne restez pas au Liban. Repartez avec le même avion ».
« C’était complètement stupide mais ils ne pouvaient pas passer en force pour ne pas froisser des susceptibilités » déclara plus tard Ménachem Navot ([5]).
Ménachem demanda à Woody (Walid ‘Fares [6]’) venu le chercher, à être immédiatement conduit chez Elie ‘Hobeika’ au Mabna el-A’men ([7]).
Mendy était en train de protester auprès du chef de la sécurité des Forces Libanaises, lorsqu’à 16 heures 10, une très forte déflagration retentit.
Quelques secondes plus tard le téléphone d’Elie sonna. Un correspondant lui annonça qu’une explosion venait de se produire au Markaz d’Achrafié. Sans se consulter, Woody, ‘Navot’ et Hobeika regardèrent leur montre. Connaissant l’emploi du temps de Bachir, ils savaient qu’il devait y être. La secrétaire passa la tête par la porte et lança,
– Bachir est sain et sauf.
Au même moment le téléphone résonna,
– ‘Bachir’ a parlé avec les sauveteurs, annonça une voix, il est sous les décombres mais vivant.
H.K. bondit hors de son bureau, sauta dans sa voiture et démarra en trombe. Woody et Mendy le suivirent dans un autre véhicule.
Du Markaz, il ne restait qu’un tas de décombres encadré par des pans de murs verticaux. Des grappes d’hommes retiraient des gravats d’un endroit pour les lancer dans un autre. Des cris, des appels et des ordres se croisaient entre des hurlements de sirènes dans une confusion indicible.
Ici et là des coups de feu tirés en l’air étaient censés faire reculer des civils et des miliciens choqués et hystériques qui s’agglutinaient autour de l’amas de ruines. Lorsque l’Israélien arriva, une grue mobile était déjà au travail. Des dizaines de sauveteurs s’affairaient dans la poussière. Un homme l’interpella et lui demanda avec un regard fou d’espoir.
– C’est vrai que Bachir a été évacué dans un hélicoptère israélien ?
Navot ne prit même pas la peine de répondre. Woody et lui étaient assommés par le spectacle et l’anxiété. Le cœur serré par l’angoisse, ils se mirent comme les autres à fouiller les ruines. Navot fit un faux mouvement, chuta lourdement dans un trou et s’ouvrit profondément la main. Woody l’évacua immédiatement vers l’hôpital des Forces Libanaises à la Quarantaine.
Alfred ‘Madi, conseiller de Bachir Gémayel’, Zahi ‘Boustani’ et Fady ‘Frem’ Commandant en chef des Forces Libanaises (FL), arrivèrent sur les lieux alors que l’on installait des projecteurs pour lutter contre l’ombre de la nuit qui commençait à s’étendre.
En voyant l’amas de ruines, Fady Frem était persuadé que Bachir avait péri écrasé sous les décombres. Des personnalités présentes lui avaient alors affirmé avoir vu Bachir vivant.
Lucien Georges, le correspondant du « Monde » était de ceux-là et décrivait même le président élu, couvert de poussière, porté dans une ambulance par des sauveteurs. Connaissant leur sérieux et leur lucidité, Frem avait été submergé par un espoir fou que sa raison tentait d’écarter.
Malgré le doute angoissant qui le rongeait, il s’accrochait désespérément à tous les détails, les propos qui étayaient son espoir. Il était retourné à la Quarantaine. Puis, ne pouvant rester loin des recherches, il y était revenu.
Frem s’engagea sur l’amas de gravats suivit de ‘Paul’ Gémayel et Abou Roy (Fawzi ‘Mahfouz’) qui étaient déjà sur place. Ils s’approchèrent de l’emplacement où, logiquement, Bachir devait se tenir pour présider la réunion.
Des sauveteurs enlevaient des blocs de béton et de la ferraille. L’un d’eux cria qu’il avait trouvé un autre corps. Frem eut l’impression que son coeur s’arrêtait de battre en reconnaissant malgré la poussière le bleu ciel du vêtement. Les deux jambes portaient une plaie ouverte sur les cuisses. Le visage écrasé était méconnaissable.
Frem remarqua l’alliance octogonale que portait le cadavre. Celle de ‘Bachir’. Paul Gémayel et Abou Roy, immobile, ne pouvaient détacher leurs regards du corps. Les sauveteurs le dégagèrent complètement et le déposèrent sur un brancard sans l’identifier. Les trois hommes regagnèrent la rue en silence.
Sans se consulter, ils turent leur découverte pour éviter de transformer l’énervement ambiant en hystérie collective. Fady ‘Frem’ rejoignit ‘Madi’ et ‘Boustani’ et leur glissa d’une voix sourde,
– Nous l’avons retrouvé, en leur montrant du menton la civière que l’on plaçait dans une ambulance.
– Je veux le voir ! cria presque Zahi. Les cinq hommes montèrent en voiture et suivirent le véhicule de la croix rouge alors que le jour finissait. Ils demandèrent aux médecins de l’hôpital de l’Hôtel Dieu de France de mettre Bachir dans une salle à part. Ils restèrent à ses côtés, pétrifiés, incapables de prononcer un mot, de faire un geste pendant plusieurs minutes.
En sortant de la pièce, Frem exigea des médecins le silence le plus absolu et demanda que le corps soit nettoyé. Ils retournèrent à la quarantaine et entrèrent dans le bureau de ‘Bachir’ où ils savaient réunie toute la famille Gémayel. ‘Solange’, l’épouse du Président élu, figée, était assise dans le fauteuil de son mari.
Le visage défait, Zahi s’approcha d’elle et l’embrassa. Tout le monde comprit. Sur le bureau se trouvait un message de Ménahem ‘Bégin’, adressé à Bachir, entérinant l’accord que le président élu avait passé avec Ariel Sharon à Bikfaya deux jours plus tôt.
Fady ‘Frem’, descendit dans la grande salle de réunion du Rez-de-chaussée dans laquelle s’étaient spontanément regroupés les membres du Conseil de Commandement des Forces Libanaises. Il leur confirma la mort de Bachir et leur annonça qu’il avait consigné toutes les unités dans leurs casernes.
Il se rendit ensuite dans la salle de réunion du nouveau bâtiment, un blockhaus de béton construit sur le côté Ouest de la cour d’honneur du Majliss. Il annonça la nouvelle à ceux qui s’y trouvaient, Elie ‘Hobeika’, Toto (Antoine ‘Bridi’), Fouad ‘Abounader’, Elie ‘Zayeck’, Poussy (Massoud ‘Achar’), Asso (Assad ‘Chaftari’) et Nazo (Nizar ‘Najarian’). (Pas de Samir Gea3ja3?)
Il y eut un long silence qu’Elie Hobeika interrompit en lâchant,
– Qui va prendre la relève ?
– ‘Amine’ son frère ! répondirent en coeur Fouad et Zayeck.
– Il n’y a qu’Amine pour prendre la relève ajouta le second.
– Amine ! Jamais ! rejeta fermement Nazo, Il faut d’abord qu’il vienne vivre avec nous.
En apprenant la mort de Bachir, Mendy, Woody et Elie ‘Machahalani’, un des gardes du corps du président élu se précipitèrent à l’Hôtel Dieu de France.
Ils traversèrent les couloirs vides. Ils finirent par rencontrer un infirmier qui sans répondre à leur question leur indiqua une porte. Woody frappa doucement. Un médecin entrouvrit le huis et leur déclara,
– Il n’y a personne ici !
Le garde du corps, d’un coup d’épaule força l’entrée. Le corps de Bachir, allongé sur une table, était recouvert d’un drap. Machahalani découvrit le visage et éclata en sanglots. Le visage maintenu par des bandes qui enserraient la tête était tout juste reconnaissable.
‘Mendy’ se précipita à l’antenne du Mossad installée au bord de la mer, à Tabarja pour communiquer la nouvelle à Tel-Aviv.
Les radios libanaises diffusaient de la musique classique entrecoupée de nouvelles contradictoires. Les unes annonçaient que Bachir avait été retrouvé sain et sauf, d’autres le disaient vivant mais blessé. Entre deux flashes toutes répétèrent le même communiqué, « Par ordre du commandant en chef, les combattants des Forces Libanaises ont interdiction absolue de circuler en armes, sans ordre de mission. Il sera également interdit de circuler en voiture dans Achrafieh demain à partir de 6 heures du matin ».
Pour éviter tout dérapage, Fady Frem avait mis l’ensemble de ses troupes en état d’alerte et les avait consignées dans leurs casernes. A minuit, Chaffic el-‘Wazzan, le premier ministre,’ annonça officiellement la mort de Bachir Gémayel. Il aurait eu 35 ans le 10 novembre 1982.
Deux jours plus tard, le 16 septembre vers 17 heures 30, Habib Tanions ‘Chartouni’, 26 ans, était interpellé chez lui par un de ses cousins Elias ‘Chartouni’ ([8]), chefs de l’un des groupes du Jihaz el-A’men d’Elie ‘Hobeika’.
Il avait été dénoncé involontairement par sa soeur, qui hystérique hurlait qu’elle devait la vie à son frère. Elle se trouvait dans le Markaz et ce dernier l’avait (quitte’) quelques secondes avant l’explosion. Ce détail alerta les enquêteurs.
Dans la soirée du dimanche 12 septembre, deux jours avant l’attentat, Chartouni avait déposé 35 Kgs de TNT, répartis dans deux sacoches, au second étage du bâtiment, dans l’appartement de ses grands-parents, où justement vivait sa soeur.
Bachir tenait ses réunions au premier. Habib Chartouni, après l’arrivée du président élu, avait téléphoné à sa soeur, restée chez elle, en lui demandant de venir le rejoindre à l’hôpital où il venait d’être admis après un accident. Il avait attendu qu’elle s’éloigne pour appuyer sur le bouton qui, en activant le klaxon d’un modèle réduit de voiture de fabrication japonaise, actionnait le détonateur extrêmement sophistiqué de fabrication chinoise, de marque Chinowa provoquant l’explosion.
Sans même être interrogé, il fut remis par les Forces Libanaise à ‘Amine’ Gémayel.
Ce dernier le confia à l’un de ses chefs de milice « Tansa », responsable de la région de Douar dans le haut Metn, non loin de la ligne de démarcation qui séparait la zone tenue par les FL de celle tenue par les soldats syriens.

Habib Chartouni, menotté, fut enfermé dans le sous-sol d’une villa vide. Quelques heures plus tard, ayant défait ses liens de fer, il s’échappa par un soupirail ouvert et disparut dans la nuit.
Il fut repris à l’aube, par des hommes d’Elie ‘Hobeika en faction au dernier barrage des Forces Libanaises, à Dhour Chouer, au moment où il passait dans la zone contrôlée par les Syriens,. ‘Chartouni’ fut ramené sur le champs au Mabna el-A’men. Il fut placé devant une caméra vidéo pour être interrogé.
Il expliqua posément et calmement qu’il était membre du Parti pro-syrien P.S.N.S.
– J’ai été contacté il y a trois ans, en 1979, au pavillon du Liban à la Cité Universitaire de Paris, par Nabil ‘Alam’, le patron du service de renseignement du P.S.N.S. Il m’a demandé de rentrer dans son service parce que je suis chrétien d’Achrafieh.
La famille Chartouni n’était pas totalement inconnue du parti de l’idiologie que la Syrie esr une nation complete et que les Syriens (incluant les Libanais, Jordanien et Palestiniens formaient un seul peuple).
Le frère d’Habib, Georges dirigeait déjà une cellule du P.S.N.S en Italie. Leur père ([9]) était propriétaire d’un Laboratoire d’analyse médicale à l’Ouest, rue Clémenceau, non loin de la chancellerie française.
– J’ai été très vite détaché auprès de ‘Hawari’ (Sphinx) affirma Habib ‘Chartouni’.
Surnommé le Sphinx, Hawari ([10]) était avant tout le chef de la cellule « Organisation Aman el-Mandoubine » ([11]) et avait pour adjoint un certain « capitaine Sadi ».
La structure et le rôle de cette cellule avaient été mis au point par un étudiant en droit gauchiste Fouad ‘Chémali’ ([12]).
En fonction de ses possibilités, chaque parti palestinien et progressiste devait fournir à l’ »‘Organisation Aman el-Mandoubine’ » des renseignements, des moyens technique, du matériel ou des hommes.
Ces derniers, venus de différents horizons, devaient pouvoir « travailler » dans leur environnement d’origine.
Ainsi les maronites « traitaient » des objectifs dans les zones chrétiennes, les sunnites faisaient de même dans la leurs et ainsi de suite. Cette méthode permettait une infiltration plus sûre mais aussi elle avait pour objectif de « brouiller les pistes ».
L’enquête effectuée sur l’Organisation permit d’arrêter deux Chrétiens Joseph ‘Kazazian’ et Nazih ‘Chaya’ qui, en février 1980, avaient placé une voiture piégée près du Palais Bustros ([13]) pour assassiner Bachir Gémayel.
L’explosion avait pulvérisé sa mercedes 280 verte dans laquelle se trouvaient sa fille Maya et deux gardes du corps. Ces deux hommes avaient, un temps, fait partie du groupe d’Elias Chartouni ([14]) et Nazih Chaya avait été renvoyé des F.S.I ([15]) en 1977.
l’ »Organisation Aman el-Mandoubine » agissait au profit de chacun de ses « fournisseurs », mais également à la demande de tous ceux qui payaient -très cher- ses services. Habib Chartouni avait été « donné », dans ce contexte, à l’ « Organisation » par le P.S.N.S qui fut tout surprit d’être directement impliqué dans l’assassinat de Bachir Gémayel.
Son leader, Inaam ‘Raad’ affirma, dans un communiqué, que le poseur de bombe ne faisait pas partie de son organisation.
En février 1983, sur ordre de Fady ‘Frem’ qui avait décidé de le faire juger pour le meurtre de Bachir, Habib Tanious ‘Chartouni’, avait été sorti des geôles des Forces Libanaises.
Il avait été présenté à la presse puis livré à des officiers de l’armée venu le chercher. Ils lui ont bandé les yeux et l’ont emmené au Ministère de la défense à Yarzeh dans une Ranch Roover aux vitres teintées, escorté à cinq autres véhicules identiques et un hélicoptère.
Le Colonel Salah ‘Mansour’ l’installa dans une cellule du 2ème Bureau situées dans le Bâtiment N°2 du Ministère.
Le jour même, Chartouni fut présenté au Procureur Général militaire Assad ‘Germanos’ qui ouvrit une procédure judiciaire à son encontre. Il reconnut les faits sans aucune difficulté et répéta presque mot pour mot ce qu’il avait dit devant les caméras des F.L. Le procureur l’inculpa du meurtre du chef de l’Etat.
Amine Gémayel, élu entre-temps Président de la République à la place de son frère, fit peu de temps après, en Conseil des Ministres, dessaisir la justice militaire du dossier Chartouni pour le confier à la Haute Cour, juridiction prévue par l’article 80 de la constitution libanaise, mais qui n’existait pas et qui n’a jamais existée ([16]).
Le Président Amine Gémayel n’a jamais expliqué cette étonnante décision qui a permis à l’assassin de son frère d’échapper à la justice
Immédiatement après la décision présidentielle Chartouni quitta les cellules du Ministère de la Défense en 1983 pour être transféré dans celles de la prison jouxtant la caserne des Commandos de l’Armée à Roumié.
Habib Tanios ‘Chartouni’ sera libéré avec les honneurs, le 13 octobre 1990, lors de l’entrée des troupes syriennes dans le Metn que défendait le général Michel ‘Aoun’.
Vivant à Damas, présenté comme un héros, il donnera des conférences de presse et participera à de nombreuses émissions de télévision.
Note 1: Pierre Gemayel (pere) etait en alliance direct avec le mouvement Zionist depuis la formation de son partie “les Phalanges” en 1936, avant la creation de l’etat d’Israel en 1948. Ce partie recevait des fonts du Zionism durant les elections electoral et a essaye plusieur fois d’assassiner le leader Antoun Saade du partie Syrien National Social.
Note 2: Le Front Libanais etait directement soutenu par Israel durant la guerre civile (1975-89) et des visites respectives a Israel et au Liban etaient une affaire frequente et connue.
Background: “Rainbow over the Levant”. Part 2
Posted by: adonis49 on: July 10, 2012
Part 2. Background: “Rainbow over the Levant”
Note: This is the second part of the historical background of my novel “Rainbow over the Levant”, published on my blog 5 years ago. You may read the first part on https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/background-rainbow-over-the-levant/.
Before the Arabic Empire, the Near East region (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine) paid its tribute to the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople.
During the Arabic hegemony, after around the year 640, the Christian people within the Arabic Empire paid their tribute to the Caliphates in one of the successive capitals such as in Mecca, Damascus, Baghdad or Cairo, and later they paid it to the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul later on till 1918. The Moslems didn’t pay taxes and it were the non-Moslems who covered the budget for running “governments”.
In modern times, the people in the Near East were under the colonial powers of either France (in Lebanon and Syria) or Great Britain (in Iraq, Palestine, Jordan and Egypt).
Nowadays, the entire region is mostly under the control of the USA, with Israel playing the role of a lesser junior partner. Indeed, a Zionist State was created as a standing mercenary army to keep the region under close control.
In the period of our novel, the Mamluks’ dynasty had conquered all of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine with the exclusion of Iraq, which was under the Mogul and later the Tatar invaders.
The Mamluks established 6 Viceroys in Damascus, Aleppo, Hama (in current Syria), Tripoli in Lebanon, Safad and Karak in Palestine. Most of the coastal cities in Lebanon were ruined because of the successive attacks to dislodge the remaining Crusaders and also because the trading caravans stopped passing through them.
The Mameluks did not invade Mount Lebanon militarily at this stage, but made sure to collect the requisite tribute and set up special coastal guards of Turkmen and Kurdish origins to prevent any recurring European invasions.
While the feudal nobleman outside Mount Lebanon was an appointed Mamluks’ military officer, whose sole interest in the land was to collect his due profit because the appointment was temporarily allocated to him, the feudal landlord in Mount Lebanon was a native and actually resided in his property and was the authority in organizing the life of the residents who usually were of the same religious denomination.
The current borders of the Republic of Lebanon were drawn by the French General Gouraux in 1920 after his army defeated the nascent Syria army in Maysaloun and entered Damascus at the end of the First World War.
What was formerly known as Lebanon encompassed only Mount Lebanon. During the French mandate other districts were attached to Lebanon:
1. The northern regions of Tripoli and Akkar were part of the “Wilayat” of Tripoli (the city of Tripoli was the capital of the “Wilayat” of the Viceroy of Tripoli that extended in Syria to include the towns of Homs and Tartus and the Lebanese littoral including Beirut).
2. The Bekaa Valley was part of the “Wilayat” of Damascus,
3. The southern regions, including the cities of Sidon and Tyre were part of the “Wilayat” of Acre in northern Palestine.
The Viceroys of Tripoli, Damascus, Safad and Acre paid allegiance to either the Sultan of Egypt in Cairo, Istanbul in Turkey, or the Shah of Iran depending on which empire was the master of the Middle East at different periods in history.
In the sixteen century, at the start of the push of the Ottoman empire to expand toward Syria, there have been attempts for a self-autonomous status in Mount Lebanon. The Druze chieftain Emir Maan the First, of the Maan tribe in the Chouf’s county, managed to unite all the counties in Mount Lebanon and then expanded toward Syria in the north and Palestine in the south.
The Ottoman Sultan became suspicious of his intentions, militarily quelled his ambitions and decapitated him in Istanbul. His grandson Fakhr El Dine (Emir Maan the Second ) succeeded to reunite Mount Lebanon and expanded his authority even further to include the Bekaa Valley after crushing the army of the Viceroy of Damascus in Anjar.
Emir Maan II opened negotiations with Florence to supply him with modern weapons and expanded trade to Europe and Egypt. Again he overshot his potentials and was defeated by the Ottoman Sultan, was exiled to Istanbul and put to death within three years of his captivity.
A century later, Emir Bechir Chahab the Second, in the Chouf district, reunited Mount Lebanon, expanded his authority, and allied himself with General Napoleon Bonaparte and Mohamed Ali in Egypt against the Ottoman and the British Empires. His ambition was foiled and was exiled to Malta for the remaining of his life.
These Emirs of Mount Lebanon extended the dominion of Mount Lebanon to parts of Syria and Palestine once they secured the unity of Mount Lebanon but they failed to go beyond maintaining law and order during their reign and no viable administrative structures or solid social and public institutions were established toward building a stable and lasting state nation.
In the Antiquity, the Phoenicians City-States of Byblos, Sidon, and Tyre expanded their dominions to Syria and Palestine at different periods in their separate ascendance. While wealth was amassed from integrated maritime enterprising complexes such as warehousing, ship repairing and trade transports by sea and land, the real source of power of these city-states resided in trained skilled workers, inland bread basket plains (Bekaa Valley), timber from the adjacent mountain forests and ready stones for constructing magnificent temples and for fortifying almost impregnable maritime castles.
In the mid-nineteenth century, a local reformist by the name of Tanios Chahine lead a commune of peasants at the town of Antelias against the feudal and clerical privileges in the Metn district. His movement resisted two years against the onslaught of the powerful enemies of the people until the latter forces of both denominations, Christians and Druze, masterminded a civil war in Mount Lebanon in order to strengthen confessionalism and their hold on power.
The civil war started in 1860 in Mount Lebanon between the Maronite and Druze and was localized in the Chouf and part of the Bekaa Valley including the town of Zahle; it lasted two years and opened the doors for the European interventions in our internal affairs that secured and maintained the old system.
The Levant was called by various names throughout history; the Arab Empire called it either the Fertile Crescent starting with the Euphrates and Tiger Rivers and ending with the Al Assy, Litany and Jordan Rivers encompassing Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. It was known as Al Sham (currently referring to the environ of Damascus) because the region was on the left of Mecca so that the region on its right was labeled Yemen.
The European colonialists called it Levant because it is where the sun dawned on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
The first wave of Levantine immigrants to the United States and Latin America was identified as Turks because they were a citizen of the Ottoman Empire, then the second wave of Levantine immigrants that spread to Africa and Egypt was identified as Syrians regardless of their present nationalities after the defeat of Turkey in the First World War.
There were many Syrian luminaries at the end of the 19th century, immigrants and locals, who wrote extensively of the need for reforms and the rejuvenation of the nation among them Jubran Khalil Jubran, Kawakibi, Youssef El Azam, Boutros Boustany, Shebly Chmayel, and Ibrahim Yaziji.
However, there were few leaders for organizing the people into political parties. In the late 19th century, two overseas organizations from Levantine descendents proclaimed that the Syrian Nation is constituted of Lebanon, the actual Syrian State, Palestine and Jordan and published their reforms and ideologies in newspapers.
The first group, located in New York (1899) and calling itself “The Young Syrian Party”, was led by Emir Youssef Shadid Abi Lameh and based on the following principles:
1. Striving toward an independent Syria with natural borders from Ras Aqaba to El Arish;
2. Working for a comprehensive agreement to unify the Arabic Nations;
3. Instituting a total separation between the religious and civil authorities;
4. Nationalizing the riches and properties of the religious clergy and assigning for them the necessary funds for their subsistence;
5. Unifying the schooling programs throughout the Nation;
6. Imposing mandatory military enlistments to reflect the will of the citizens for holding on to a Nation.
The second group was formed in Sao Paolo, Brasil, in 1922 and was lead by Jamil Maaluf and Asaad Bechara. They named their political association the “Syrian National Party” which adopted the basic principles of the former group but added more principles with detailed exposition.
For example, the “Syrian National Party” specifically advocated:
1. the requisite of civil marriages among the different religious sects,
2. adopting the Arabic language as the national language in all the private and public schools,
3. giving Lebanon and Palestine self administrative autonomy
4. prohibiting the religious clergy from interfering in the civil status laws and executive decisions.
Unfortunately, these two political parties were never transplanted in their original homeland and did not take roots as formal political organization in Lebanon, Palestine or Syria.
This section will raise controversies among both the isolationists and greater Pan-Arab nationalists save that current facts should not be sacrificed at the altar of the whimsical confessional minds: we have a disposition of fabricating our history on flimsy emotional exigencies.
The only political party that is disciplined and grounded on solid ideological principles that proclaims Syria as a complete Nation and survived today is called the “Syrian National Social Party”. This political party was founded in 1932 by Antoun Saade, a native of Dhour Choueir in the Metn, during the French mandate of Lebanon as an underground party.
Saade was an immigrant in Brazil where his father Khalil published an Arabic daily. He relocated to Lebanon and taught at the American University of Beirut and founded his party. He was then forced to exile in 1936 by the French colonial authority and settled in Argentina during the Second World War.
Saade returned to Lebanon in 1947 to an unprecedented mass welcome at the airport to reorganize his party and affirm its ideology after a few discrepancies in views among its leaders emanating from the independence of Lebanon during his exile. The members of this party celebrate in July 8 the martyrdom of its founder, Antoun Saade, who was summarily executed in 1949 when he was in his late forties, after a kangaroo trial that lasted barely 48 hours.
Saade represented a serious danger as an organized force that exposed the forces of the defeatist isolationists and sectarianists in our communities.
While the Communist party in Syria was the first truly secular organization established in the first quarter of the 20th century, Antoun Saade was the first leader to create a secular political party affirming that Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Iraq form one nation and one society. The ideology of the latter political party was based on a comprehensive project, politically, socially, philosophically, culturally and economically.
This party believes that the Syrian Nation is one of the four Arabic nations; the three other Arabic nations being: the Arabic Peninsula Nation of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman and the Arab Emirate Union of States, then the Nile Arabic Nation of Egypt and Sudan, and then the North African Arabic Nation of Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania.
The “Syria National Social Party” was and still is secular in its ideology and practice, and even during Lebanon civil war of (1975-1991), it did not participate in the killing on confessional basis. The Syrian National Social Party exists officially in Lebanon and lately in Syria with substantial Palestinian adherents.
Antoun Saade was less successful politically to share responsibilities in any government or to unite our nation against Zionism and the colonial exploitation to our main national resources in oil with no significant strategic political and economic returns.
One characteristic that stand out in the concept of secular nationalism in the Levant, especially in Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine, is that almost all the nationalist political party leaders or founders were from minority Christians. For example:
Michel Aflak, the founder of the Baath Party, still in power in Syria and for three decades in Iraq; George Habache the founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; Naef Hawatmeh the founder of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Antoun Saade the founder of the Syrian National Social Party.
It appears that the Moslems could not shed out the notion that their allegiance might be to any power that did not wrap itself up with the mantle of the Caliphate of Islam. Even during the First World War, the British had to seek support from the so-called House of the descended of the Prophet Mohammad in the tribe of El-Hashemite in Mecca.
It is no surprise that the cornerstone of the doctrines of the salafit Sunni Moslem political parties is the restitution of the Caliphate in the Moslem world.
Urban Islam and Rural Islam: And the Third kind
Posted by: adonis49 on: July 23, 2010
Urban Islam and Rural Islam
Western Europe (England, France, and Germany) of the 19th century was hooked to Orientalism: The aristocracies wore turbans and Ottoman attires. They were carried away with the romantic notion of an Orient (Middle East and Central Asia) as being the remaining original primitive races and conserving the roots of “spirituality” (sufism).
The Jew Benjamin Disraeli, Queen Victoria’s Prime Minister, was baptized at the age 12, but never relinquished his Jewishness. Disraeli was a staunch Orientalist and categorized the Arabs as “Arab-Moses” and “Arab-Muhammad” on the basis that they are the original races; thus, his classification was based on race.
Implicitly, Disraeli must have considered Arabs as a collection of tribes roaming arid desert lands and conserving their customs and traditions, not altered for centuries, in order to survive the influences of surrounding vast empires such as Persia, Byzantium, Romans, Greeks and so forth.
In the Near East, Antoun Saadeh, founder of the Syria National Socialist Party (SNSP) in 1933, divided Islam in his book as “Islam in its two messages: Islam-Christ and Islam-Muhammad.” Implicitly, Saadeh classified Islam into two major sects: Urban Islam (living near urban conglomeration and in fertile agricultural regions) and rural Islam (living in arid desert regions and rugged mountain areas.)
Consequently, Urban Islam or Islam-Christ is a set of sects that exhibit flexibility in changing customs, traditions, and have propensity to compromise and accepting even abstract dogma (constructs) to survive Imperial edicts (Byzantium, Persian and Caliphs…)
People in urban environmental setting are more concerned with commerce, trade, and freedom of opinion. In a sense, urban religious sects have tendency for assimilation into a culture that has demonstrated material supremacy over its surrounding neighboring people.
Rural Islam or Islam-Muhammad is a set of sects that refuse to consider abstract constructs and rely on sets of antique laws that regulate their daily life. They are either petrified on mountain strongholds or arid desert regions that do not encourage easy communication and travel. They lack financial means to trade for luxury items that might disturb the social fabric of equality in standard of living and the unity of the tribe.
There is a third class of religious sects than can resolve many difficulties in working out a taxonomy for religious sects. They are the tribes living close to urban surrounding and fertile zones; they adopt nomadic characteristics, but have acquired flexible line of thinking.
They are the “conveyor belt” or the transmitters of cultural differences between the two major categories of sects. They are the prime “intelligence gatherer or front-line intelligence agencies” for the powerful neighboring empires; they are the guides in time of wars; they guard the security of caravans crossing regions and extend facilities in water and supplies.
These third class of tribes have the mental agility to manipulating abstract dogma, though they preferred the freedom of keeping away from the lures of urban “decadence“.
It is no enigma why fundamentalist sects of all religions, and particularly the three monotheist religions (that I call “mono-idolatry religions”) move away from urban environment to far away regions, where they can exercise and apply their restrictive laws and not succumb to urban disastrous influences.
That what the Mormons did, the Calvinists, the Huguenot, and the Wahhabi did, and so on.
In the 20th century Europe, there were several kinds of Judaism. You had the notable, professional urban Jews who were ready to be assimilated within the dominant culture of powerful nations; and you had the Jews of the “shtetl” in poor rural Eastern Europe and within non-advanced cultural regions; and you had the Jews of ghettos or tribes close to urban centers.
Obviously, there were Jewish tribes in harsh mountain regions in the Caucasus and other tribes in Northern Africa and the Middle East. You had cosmopolitan Jews in Constantinople (Istanbul) and the Ottoman cities.
The Jews of the shtetl tended to accept the German ideology of the “volkish” or pure tribal blood with creative minds. The volkish was a romantic notion that required to be settled on a piece of land for many centuries that conserved the folk spirit of the rural life style.
Thus, the various Zionist factions finally agreed on two fundamental notions:
First, the spirit of Judaism is rooted in the Orient and the Jews have to become the mediators between the Western and eastern civilizations.
The second principle was to finding a land and occupy it in order to satisfying the German per-requisite of the volkish ideology.
As Zionism settled in Palestine, it applied the two worst social and political structures of both civilizations.
First, it applied the apartheid and racist Western European ideology of “Teutonic vital space” (camouflaged under Biblical myths) by the sword and blood of utmost cruelty.
Second, Israel society was transformed into a caste system among its Jewish sects, for example Ashkenazim “European” sects and Sephardi Arab-Jew sects (and more blatantly with Palestinian minorities) in all its administrative and governmental services. So much for Zionism mediation among civilizations.
Note 1: Antoun Saade proved that Islam-Muhammad was almost identical to Islam-Christ in the first 13 years of its proselytizing in Mecca. It is after Muhammad settled in Medina (Yathreb) that Islam-Muhammad changed and had to institute laws governing the City -State of Medina.
To Saade, Jesus had no need for religious laws governing people, since Roman civil laws were the laws of the Land and because Jesus was against the 650 laws of the Pharisee sect, shackling people in restrictive daily life behavior and obliterating free reflection and liberty in thinking.
Note 2: The “conveyor belt” tribes close to major urban setting (Damascus, Aleppo…) were mostly of the kind of “heretic” Christian sects that refused central religious power. They had suffered from the frequent changes in religious belief of Byzantium Emperors…
Note 3: This anecdote is reflective of the sameness in belief system at the beginning of Islam. Prophet Muhammad told his most beloved wife Aicha: “I know when you are happy and when you are angry with me. When you are happy you say: “God of Muhammad” and when angry you say: “God of Jacob”…
Appendix of the fiction story “Rainbow over the Levant (Near East)
Historical background
A short summary of the history of this region, starting two centuries preceding the events of this novel, can shed a satisfactory understanding for the setting of this historical fiction around the last quarter of the 14th century AD.
The Mameluke Sultan Baybars of Egypt had dislodged the Christian Crusaders from the last remaining city in the Near East in 1291. The chased out Crusaders forces were just holding on to the island of Cyprus.
The Caliphates of the Islamic empire, who were virtual rulers in Baghdad since the 10th century, were restored to their virtual religious polarization in Cairo under the Mameluke hegemony.
The Crusaders from Christian Europe had been defeated previously in 1187 in a critical battle at Hittine in Palestine by Saladin who managed that feat after reigning as Sultan in both capitals of Cairo and Damascus.
To better comprehend the Levant history we need to stress on the facts that the whole region that composes the present States of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and even Iraq (from the 12th century onward) has been throughout its long history under the direct or indirect domination of empires in Iran, Turkey or Egypt.
The local Emirs or appointed governors paid tributes to one of these powerful centers in return to governing their internal affairs, participating in military campaigns and defending the political dominions and interests of the regional Great Sultans. The reigning Sultan of Egypt had the upper hand in the period of the novel in the Near East region.
In the 10th century, two dynasties ruled part of the Middle East.
In Egypt, the Shiite Moslem Fatimid dynasty, coming from Northern Africa established their Caliphate in Cairo and stretched its influence to Aleppo in Syria; their successor the Ayyubid Sunni Moslem dynasty, from Kurdish descent, displaced the Fatimid and then the Mameluke (the serfs who came to hold high political and military powers in the Ayyubid dynasty) rose to power and defeated the Mogul invasion in two crucial battles in Palestine in 1260 at Elbostan.
In Iran, the Seljuk dynasty stretched their empire to Samarqand, Bukhara, Khorassan, Afghanistan, part of Turkey, Syria and part of Lebanon. They fought the Crusaders in the Near East during most of their reign through the intermediary of their appointed “Atabeks” in Turkey and Syria.
The Seljuk dynasty was taken over by the Khowarasmi dynasty whose Sultans were at odd with the Caliphate of Baghdad and helped the hordes of Genghis Khan the Mogul, led by his son Holako, to enter and devastate Baghdad in 1258 which ended the “Arabic/Islamic” Empire.
The Moguls established two Viceroys in Iraq, one at Mosul in the Northern part and the second in Baghdad for the Southern part of Iraq. The Arabic Era that lasted for 5 centuries ended as a cultural and organizational influence. The Emirs in Palestine were generally affiliated to the Sultan of Egypt. .
The societies in the Levant region have experienced a different level of organizational skills and the beginning of the application of the rudiment written rules of Laws from their interaction with the European Crusaders. (Note that Lebanon and particularly Beirut was the center of law studies during the Roman Empire from 100 to 600 AC)
We don’t have much information about the status of Mount Lebanon in that period or about its Emirs, its social structure, its allegiances, its demographic constituency or its economic development.
We assume that the Crusaders left a strong impact on the inhabitants in Mount Lebanon which forced the Arab Emirs to start relocating many Arabic tribes from Southern Iraq into the Mount Lebanon regions to counterbalance the Christian population (Mostly the Maronite and the Christian Orthodox affiliated to Byzantium empire).
Even before the advent of the Arabic Empire, Christian monasteries were numerous and spread out throughout the Near East and Iraq and occupied the top of mountains and hills and the best areas near fresh water sources in the same fashion you notice them currently in Mount Lebanon.
The monks had their special chambers/grotto (kelayye) for retreats and prayers. Monasteries were very prosperous, mainly producing and selling beer, and maintained exquisite gardens of fruit trees, flowers and vegetables and were well stocked in provisions from their land and donations of the faithful.
During the Arabic Empire, monasteries were required to set up annexes of hostels in order to receive wary travelers and to lodge and feed them. Usually, the relatives of monks maintained these hostels; Caliphates, Emirs, and well to do noblemen used to patronize the monasteries and spent days in these quiet domains to eat, drink local wine and beer and have great time away from the scrutiny of city dwellers.
The monasteries in the Levant suffered during the Crusaders’ period because of the bad manners of the European invaders, their robbery and plunder, but the monasteries in Iraq and Eastern Turkey were as prosperous as ever because the crusaders did not venture deep in the Arabic Empire, beyond Antaquia.
Many castles were demolished during that bloody period, a few were partially rehabilitated but a lot of reconstruction of war infrastructure was needed. What is important to note is that wars were no longer waged using chars with spiked wheels that harvest feet or employed exotic animals such as elephants as during the Antiquity.
Canons of wars were not invented yet, except may be in remote China where they were used during the main ceremonies related to their standing emperors.
Wars were still waged with infantry, cavalry and archers in the conventional ways. Newly designed catapults for throwing rocks at castle walls and entrances were in use by rich nations with well equipped and sophisticated armies. The full metal armor used by the crusaders was replaced by the noblemen to a vest of meshed chains and a metal helmet: The climate may not have been suitable to European fashion since we do enjoy at least 7 months of hot and dry seasons.
Before the Arabic/Islamic Empire, the region paid its tribute to the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople. During the Arabic hegemony, the Christian people paid their tribute to the Caliphates in one of the successive capitals in Mecca, Damascus, Baghdad or Cairo and later they paid it to the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul.
In modern times they were under the colonial powers of either France (in Lebanon and Syria) or Great Britain (in Iraq, Palestine, Jordan and Egypt). Nowadays, the whole region is mostly under the control of the USA with Israel playing the role of a lesser junior partner.
Indeed, a Zionist State was created as a standing mercenary army to keep the region under close control and divided.
In the period of our novel, the Mameluke dynasty had conquered all of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine with the exclusion of Iraq which was under the Mogul and later the Tatar invaders.
The Mameluke established 6 Viceroys in Damascus, Aleppo and Hama (in current Syria), Tripoli in Lebanon, Safad and Karak in Palestine.
Most of the coastal cities in Lebanon were ruined because of the successive attacks to dislodge the remaining Crusaders and also because the trading caravans stopped passing through them. The Mameluke did not invade Mount Lebanon militarily at this stage but made sure to collect the requisite tribute and set up special coastal guards from Turkmen and Kurdish origins to prevent any recurring European invasions.
While the feudal nobleman outside Mount Lebanon was an appointed Mameluke military officer whose sole interest in the land was to collect his due profit because it was temporarily allocated to him, the feudal landlord in Mount Lebanon was a native and actually resided in his property and was the authority in organizing the life of the residents who usually were of the same religious denomination.
The current borders of the Republic of Lebanon were drawn by the French General Gouro in 1920 after he militarily entered Damascus at the end of the First World War. What was formerly known as Lebanon encompassed only Mount Lebanon.
The northern regions of Tripoli and Akkar were part of the “Wilayat” of Tripoli; the city of Tripoli was the capital of the “Wilayat” of the Viceroy of Tripoli and it extended in Syria to include the towns of Homs and Tartus and the Lebanese littoral including Beirut.
The Bekaa Valley was part of the “Wilayat” of Damascus, and the southern regions, including the cities of Sidon and Tyr were part of the “Wilayat” of Acre in northern Palestine.
The Viceroys of Tripoli, Damascus, Safad and Acre paid allegiance to either the Sultan of Egypt in Cairo, Istanbul in Turkey, or the Shah of Iran depending on which empire was the master of the Middle East at different periods in history.
In the sixteen century, at the start of the push of the Ottoman’s empire to expand toward Syria, there have been attempts for a self-determination status in Mount Lebanon. The Druze chieftain of the Maan tribe in the Chouf county, Emir Maan the First, managed to unite all the counties in Mount Lebanon and then expanded toward Syria in the north and Palestine in the south.
The Ottoman Sultan became suspicious of his intentions, militarily quelled his ambitions and decapitated him in Istanbul. His grandson Fakhr El Dine succeeded to reunite Mount Lebanon and expanded his authority even further to include the Bekaa Valley after crushing the army of the Viceroy of Damascus in Anjar.
Emir Maan the Second opened negotiations with Florence to supply him with modern weapons and expanded trade to Europe and Egypt. Again he overshot his potentials and was defeated by the Ottoman Sultan, was exiled to Istanbul and put to death within three years of his captivity.
A century later, Emir Bechir Chehab the Second in the Chouf district reunited Mount Lebanon, expanded his authority, and allied himself with General Napoleon Bonaparte and Mohamed Ali in Egypt against the Ottoman and the British Empires. His ambition was foiled and was exiled to Malta for the remaining of his life.
These Emirs extended the dominion of Mount Lebanon to parts of Syria and Palestine once they secured the unity of Mount Lebanon but they failed to go beyond maintaining law and order during their reign and no viable administrative structures or solid social and public institutions were established toward building a stable and lasting state nation.
In the Antiquity, the Phoenicians/Canaanite city-states of Byblos, Sidon, and Tyr expanded their dominions to Syria and Palestine at different periods in their separate ascendancies. While wealth was amassed from integrated maritime enterprising complexes such as warehousing, ship repairing and trade transports by sea and land, the real source of power of these city-states resided in trained skilled workers, inland bread basket plains, timber from the adjacent mountain forests and ready stones for constructing magnificent temples and for fortifying almost impregnable maritime castles.
In the mid nineteenth century, a local reformist by the name of Tanios Chahine lead a commune of peasants at the town of Antelias against the feudal and clerical privileges in the Metn. His movement resisted two years against the onslaught of the powerful enemies of the people until the latter forces of both denominations, Christians and Druze, masterminded a civil war in Mount Lebanon in order to strengthen confessionalism and their hold on power.
The civil war started in 1860 in Mount Lebanon between the Maronite and Druze and was localized in the Chouf and part of the Bekaa Valley including the town of Zahle; it lasted two years and opened the doors for the European interventions in our internal affairs that secured and maintained the old system.
The Levant was called by various names throughout history; the Arab Empire called it either the Fertile Crescent starting with the Euphrates and Tiger Rivers and ending with the Al Assy river, Litany and Jordan Rivers encompassing Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine or Al Sham (currently referring to the environ of Damascus) because the region was on the left of Mecca so that the region on its right was labeled Yemen. The European colonialists called it Levant because it is where the sun dawned on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
The first wave of Levantine immigrants to the United States and Latin America was identified as “Turks” because they were citizen of the Ottoman Empire, then the second wave of Levantine immigrants that spread to Africa and Egypt was identified as Syrians, regardless of their present nationalities after the defeat of Turkey in the First World War.
There were many Syrian luminaries at the end of the 19th century, immigrants and locals, who wrote extensively of the need for reforms and the rejuvenation of the nation among them Jubran Khalil Jubran, Kawakibi, Youssef El Azam, Boutros Boustany, Shebly Chmayel, and Ibrahim Yaziji.
However, there were few leaders for organizing the people into political parties.
In the late 19th century two overseas organizations from Levantine descendants proclaimed that the Syrian Nation is constituted of Lebanon, the actual Syrian State, Palestine and Jordan and published their reforms and ideologies in newspapers.
The first group, located in New York (1899) and calling itself “The Young Syrian Party“, was lead by Emir Youssef Shadid Abi Lameh and based on the following principles:
1) Striving toward an independent Syria with natural borders from Ras Aqaba to El Arish;
2) Working for a comprehensive agreement to unify the Arabic Nations;
3) Instituting a total separation between the religious and civil authorities;
4) Nationalizing the riches and properties of the religious clergy and assigning for them the necessary funds for their subsistence;
5) Unifying the schooling programs throughout the Nation;
6) Imposing mandatory military enlistments to reflect the will of the citizens for holding on to a Nation.
The second group was formed in Sao Paolo, Brazil, in 1922 and was lead by Jamil Maaluf and Asaad Bechara and later Khalil Saadi (the father of Antoun Saadi who created the Syria national Social party in 1933 in Lebanon). They named their political association the “Syrian National Party” which adopted the basic principles of the former party but added more principles with detailed exposition.
For example, the “Syrian National Party” specifically advocated the requisite of civil marriages among the different religious sects, adopting the Arabic language as the national language in all the private and public schools, giving Lebanon and Palestine self administrative autonomy and prohibiting the religious clergy from interfering in the civil status laws and executive decisions.
Unfortunately, these two political parties were never transplanted in their original homeland and did not take roots as formal political organization in Lebanon, Palestine or Syria.
This section will raise controversies among both the isolationists and greater Pan Arab nationalists save that live and current facts should not be sacrificed at the alter of the whimsical confessional minds: we have a disposition of fabricating our history on flimsy emotional exigencies.
The only political party that is disciplined and grounded on solid ideological principles that proclaims Syria as a complete Nation and One People and survived today is called the “Syrian National Social Party”.
This political party was founded in 1932 by Antoun Saadi, a native Lebanese of Dhour Chouweir in the Metn, during the French mandate of Lebanon as an underground party. He was an immigrant in Latin America from Brazil, relocated to Lebanon and taught at the American University of Beirut and founded his party. He was then forced to exile in 1937 by the French colonial authority and settled in Argentina during the Second World War.
Saadi returned to Lebanon in 1947 to an unprecedented mass welcome at the airport (50,000 from all parts of the Syrian States) to reorganize his party and affirm its ideology after a few discrepancies in views among its leaders emanating from the independence of Lebanon during his exile.
The members of this party celebrate in July 8 the martyrdom of its founder, Antoun Saadi, who was summarily executed in 1949 in an extra-judicial trial of 2 days when he was 45 years old (a kangaroo trial that forbade a defense lawyer). He represented a serious danger as an organized force that exposed the forces of the defeatist isolationists and sectarianisms in our communities against the existential Zionist enemy of Israel.
While the Communist party in Syria was the first truly secular organization established in the first quarter of the 20th century, Antoun Saadi was the first leader to create a secular political party affirming that Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Iraq form one nation and one society.
The ideology of the latter political party was based on a whole project, politically, socially, philosophically, culturally and economically. This party believes that the Syrian Nation is one of the four Arabic nations; the three other Arabic nations being: the Arabic Peninsula Nation constituted of current Saudi Monarchy, Yemen, Oman and the Arab Emirate Union of States, then the Nile Arabic Nation of Egypt and Sudan, and then the North African Arabic Nation of Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania.
The party was and still is secular in its ideology and practice, and even during Lebanon civil war of (1975-1990) it did not participate in the killing on confessional basis.
The Syrian National Social Party exists officially in Lebanon and lately in Syria with substantial Palestinian adherents. Antoun Saadi was less successful politically to share responsibilities in any government or to unite our nation against Zionism and the colonial exploitation to our main national resources in oil with no significant strategic political and economic returns.
One characteristic that stand out in the concept of secular nationalism in the Levant, especially in Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine, is that almost all the nationalist political party leaders or founders were minority Christians.
For example, Michel Aflak the founder of the Baath Party, still in power in Syria and for three decades in Iraq, George Habache the founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Naef Hawatmeh the founder of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Antoun Saadi the founder of the Syrian National Social Party.
It appears that the Muslims could not shed out the notion that their allegiance might be to any power that did not wrap itself up with the mantle of the Caliphate of Islam. Even during the First World War the British had to seek support from the so-called House of the descended of the Prophet Mohammad in the tribe of El-Hashemite in Mecca.
It is no surprise that the cornerstone of the doctrines of the salafi Sunni Moslem political parties is the reinstitution of the Caliphate in the Muslim world.