BEIRUT: Prominent Sheikh Dai al-Islam al-Shahhal said in remarks published Tuesday that the arrest warrant against him belittled the entire Sunni community and would have consequences, saying the Tripoli clashes would have been worse if he and his allies believed in the battle against the Army.
“Hezbollah has a lot of influence on many measures and decisions and the way these decisions are carried out in Lebanon,” Shahhal, a prominent Salafist leader, told An-Nahar.
“The warrant, if it meant anything, signified the low level of treatment that institutions in Lebanon are stooping to, including discrimination in treating citizens.”
“I cannot remain silent toward such injustice and there will be consequences.”
Many Sunni religious and political figures have repeatedly criticized security forces for discriminating against them and turning a blind eye to Hezbollah, whose fighters are freely crossing the border to fight alongside President Bashar Assad's regime.
The Army has in recent days arrested dozens of militants and seized a number of arms caches in Tripoli, after the military clashes for four days with militants in the northern city as well as other northern villages.
Last week, the military prosecutor issued an arrest warrant against Shahhal and Sheikh Bilal Deqmaq after the Army raided last week an arms cache at the residence of Deqmaq. Shahhal said the weapons the Army seized belonged to him and demanded that the military returned them.
Shahhal has said Deqmaq had moved the arms to his own residence after rumors about possible Army raids on Shahhal’s residence and that of hard-line Akkar MP Khaled Daher.
Speaking to An-Nahar, Shahhal said the measures against him were meant to force him to “kneel down to the Wilayat al-Fakih government and this will not happen. This warrant belittles the Sunni sect.”
The sheikh, who is currently in Turkey, said he would return to Lebanon soon despite the warrant.
Asked about the large quantity of arms he possessed, Shahal said: “I have many enemies and I have an 18-man strong guard with several shifts. In case we are attacked or a security breach happened and the Army doesn’t' do anything, we will defend ourselves."
Shahal also denied that he called on his supporters to attack the Army in Tripoli.
"We warned several times that young men would be dragged into a confrontation with the Army. If we were convinced of that, we would have taken the streets along with our allies and hell would have broken loose in all areas."
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