SIDON, Lebanon: The Ghandour family in Sidon has long cherished the principle of tolerance and espoused diversity. News that one of its members died fighting alongside jihadis in Syria came as a shock since fanaticism is scorned within the family. The Shiite family moved to the mixed Sunni-Shiite suburb of Taamir Ain al-Hilweh in the southern coastal city of Sidon in 1960 after their house in Sidon’s old downtown was destroyed in the devastating earthquake of 1956.
The jihadi’s late grandfather Hasan Ghandour, a kerosene seller, was a fervent supporter of late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel-Nasser. In the family home, Ghandour hung a giant photo of the Arab leader, next to a photo of leftist leader and late Sidon MP Maarouf Saad, and an icon depicting Imam Ali, Prophet Mohammad’s cousin and revered Shiite figure.
Ghandour loved Abdel-Nasser so much that he named one of his sons after him. In line with Lebanese traditions Abdel-Nasser Ghandour named his eldest son Hasan, after his father.
A disciple of fugitive Salafist Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, the young Hasan died fighting alongside rebel groups in Syria, his family announced earlier this week.
One of the jihadi’s uncles confided to The Daily Star that the elder Hasan Ghandour could have never imagined that one of his grandchildren would take up weapons and fight alongside Islamist militants in Syria. The uncle who spoke on behalf of the Ghandour family, requested to remain anonymous.
The uncle confirmed that Hasan Abdel-Nasser Ghandour, 21, who went by the nom de guerre “Abu Jaafar Ghandour” was killed in Syria. “His wife Cherine, who he married after he arrived in Syria, telephoned us on Feb. 26 to announce that Hasan died during the raging clashes in Aleppo,” he said.
According to his Syrian wife, Abu Jaafar was killed while “filming the battles” between rebel forces and government groups.
Abu Jaafar, who had graduated from high school in 2012 and afterward enrolled in the Lebanese University’s faculty of sciences, was very much influenced by firebrand Sheikh Assir.
Abu Jaafar’s father Abdel-Nasser, who is currently ill and undergoes kidney dialysis on a weekly basis, had converted from Shiite Islam to Sufism in the 1980s. Abdel-Nasser made several trips to Turkey and Iraq in the late 1980s to take part in Sufi conventions.
After graduating from school, his son Abu Jaafar regularly visited Sheikh Assir’s mosque in the Sidon suburb of Abra and another mosque in the city’s neighborhood of Fawwar, where he resided.
According to his uncle, Abu Jaafar did not take part in the 2013 clashes that pitted the Lebanese Army against militants affiliated with Assir, a Hezbollah critic who is still on the run. “He stayed at home during the clashes because he did not want to fight the Lebanese Army,” the uncle said.
Assir claimed that the Lebanese government is controlled by Hezbollah and that state institutions, especially its security forces, are biased against Sunnis.
The clashes in Abra resulted in the death of 18 Army soldiers and around 40 of Assir’s followers. The Army was able to arrest 46 suspect.
In November 2013, nearly five months after Assir was ousted from Sidon, Abu Jaafar traveled to Turkey, the uncle recalled. “Hasan told us he was studying in Beirut but we soon learned that he joined militants in Syria,” he added.
Security sources told The Daily Star that Abu Jaafar headed to Syria to fight alongside the Nusra Front.
The uncle said many family members contacted the young fighter urging him to return to his country.
“His mother Aziza implored him to come back several times and she even told him that we do not kill ourselves nor explode ourselves, but to no avail,” he added.
The uncle maintained that although he received reassurances from members of his family, “Hasan was afraid to come back so he stayed there [in Syria].”
The security sources said that Abu Jaafar’s name emerged as a suspect in numerous suicide bombings that shook Lebanon between 2013 and 2014. Investigators headed several times to his home in Fawwar for DNA sampling but investigations revealed that he was uninvolved, the sources said.
The family has taken down a big poster of Abu Jaafar erected by some youths in Fawwar, which described the slain fighter as “the martyr of Fawwar” and “the lion of Fawwar.”
Much to the dismay of the family, some of Abu Jaafar’s acquaintances even received congratulations after news of his killing emerged.
“For a family like ours that despises killing and extremism, Hasan has died and that’s it,” the uncle said.
“He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. He was better off pursuing his studies at university.”
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