Salafists, Armed Gangs, Alquaeda, Terrorists

So many people are mixing up the terms that describe the Sunni players in the Tripoli clashes. This is why I feel some clarifications — and an observation — are in order.

First, let’s talk about the different words being thrown around: Salafists, Armed Gangs and Terrorists

Salafists:

They look scary. They have scary thoughts and follow an obnoxious ideology that doesn’t believe in Lebanon as a country. BUT, their ideology does not condone a military struggle. In the latest events their chief role is demonstrating and blocking the roads using tires in protest to the way in which one of them was arrested.

Armed Gangs / Militias

Ragtag young men with weapons. They assign themselves causes like protecting their communities from a perceived enemy. Some of them might belong to Salafi groups, but not all of them do. Their motivations are more communitarian (“we want to defend our Sunni/Alawi brothers and sisters”) than religious (“we want to kill infidels”). They are the ones exchanging fire in Bab el Tebbane and Jabal Mohsen at the moment. “Armed gangs” describes both sides of the shooting.

Terrorists and or Alquaeda

A terrorist is someone who intentionally kills civilians, preferably on a large scale, to instill fear. Alquaeda are a higher class of terrorists because their operations are spectacular and involve suicide. You could call both sides of the Tripoli event terrorists if you want, but that would be a loose use of the word, based on the fact that they are shooting indiscriminately at each other without caring if innocent people die. Most importantly though, there is no evidence of any Alquaeda presence.

Why the differentiation is important

When fear is involved, nuance and reason are the first to go. If you see men with beards demonstrating and then you see armed gangs shooting, you are primed to mix it all together and believe the first person who throws the word “Alqaeda” in your face.

What’s important to remember is that there are two sides in this story that are both equally dangerous. They are both equally armed and they are both using heavy weapons: The Sunni armed gangs and some of their Salafi supporters on one hand, and the Allawi armed gangs and their Syrian regime supporters on the other.

What the Syrian regime is trying to do is to say: Look, maybe we are bad, but the others are monsters. They are terrorists. They are Alquaeda. The point of this post is that you shouldn’t fall for that.