BEIRUT: The Muslim Scholars Committee is making the headlines again.
The committee’s head, Sheikh Salem Rafei, met Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian Monday and said his group was ready to resume mediation efforts to release around 25 security personnel captured by ISIS and the Nusra Front in August.
However, he said the committee had two conditions: first, to be officially tasked with the mediation by the government; second, approval – in principle – of a swap deal involving the release of Islamist detainees in Roumieh prison, a key condition of the Nusra Front and ISIS.
The initiative, which came after Qatar announced that it was pulling out of the negotiations, is not the first to be launched by the committee. So what is the committee, and what are its goals?
The committee, established in 2012, comprises around 400 preachers from Sunni political party Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, Salafist movements and other Islamist groups.
“The goal of the group is to preserve the rights of the Sunni sect and to support the uprising in Syria against the oppressive regime,” said Sheikh Adnan Amama, the committee’s spokesperson.
“Our goal is also to complement the role of Dar al-Fatwa and other official religious institutions in Lebanon,” he told The Daily Star.
The committee has a 60-member Shura Council that wields legislative power, and a 17-member administrative office with executive power.
The committee’s name emerged as it tried to mediate an end to violent conflicts that were blighting several parts of the country.
In June 2013, the group offered to mediate a cease-fire to end clashes between the Army and Islamist militants loyal to fugitive preacher Sheikh Ahmad Assir after they opened fire on Army posts in the Abra suburb of Sidon.
However, the Army rejected the offer and was able to crush Assir’s gunmen within 24 hours.
Then, in August this year, the committee brokered a cease-fire that ended five days of clashes between the Army and militants of ISIS and the Nusra Front who had invaded the northeastern town of Arsal. The jihadis withdrew from the town, but took with them more than 30 Army soldiers and Internal Security Forces personnel as hostages.
The Nusra Front has since released seven of the hostages and killed two, while ISIS has executed a further two.
According to security sources, the committee maintains good ties with the Nusra Front, but has no relations with ISIS.
Amama said that the committee had yet to contact ISIS and the Nusra Front as part of its renewed efforts to release the servicemen.
“We haven’t contacted them yet. Their ideology is totally different than ours,” Amama said. “They insist on swapping the captives with Islamist detainees. Otherwise, they do not see any religious objection to killing the servicemen,” Amama said. “The state has two choices only: a swap deal or slaughter.”
But many accuse the committee of sympathizing with ISIS and the Nusra Front, saying that it constantly belittled the Lebanese Army and blew the military’s mistakes out of proportion.
Recently, there have been divisions within the group, culminating in the resignation of Sheikh Malek Jdaydi, the president of the body, who has since come out strongly against the committee.
Speaking to The Daily Star, Jdaydi said he was planning to form a new committee that truly represented Islam.
He said the Muslim Scholars Committee constantly attacked the Army and state institutions, refused to cooperate with moderate people from all sides, and ignored assaults by Nusra Front and ISIS on Lebanon, even occasionally defending them.
“Why do they always make accusations against the Army – which is protecting the country – and always defend others?” he asked, referring to Nusra Front and ISIS. “They said that the arrest of a woman is illegal. But what about the slaughtering of soldiers? Is this legal?”
Rafei Monday called for the unconditional release of Saja al-Dulaimi, the ex-wife of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and Ola Mithqal al-Oqaily, the wife of a Nusra Front leader, as a show of good will to stay threats to execute more hostages.
Jdaydi said that the committee’s sympathies could compel the two groups to cooperate with its mediation efforts, but said this would be counterproductive.
“They [the Nusra Front and ISIS] might honor them by releasing one of the soldiers with the aim of reviving the role of the committee and undermining people’s confidence in the state,” he said.
Amama dismissed Jdaydi’s claims as “unjust” and motivated by personal interests.
“It is a personal issue. None of the committee members have resigned with Sheikh Malek and none support his recent stances,” Amama said.
He said that Jdaydi had launched his campaign against the committee after its decision to shorten his term from one year to six months.
“Why was it just now that he made these stances? The committee was moderate when he headed it and was no longer moderate after his resignation?” Amama said.
But Jdaydi hit back, saying that he had voiced his intention to resign long before his term was shortened and that he began voicing his opposition to the committee’s rhetoric as soon as he became its head. He also said that many preachers had resigned from the group but that they had done so secretly, away from media.
“Let’s see if they can bring together just 200 scholars to a meeting now,” he said.
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