In Lebanon's camps, rising sympathy for Islamists
Recent battles between Lebanese police and Fatah al-Islam militants anger local residents.
from the May 31, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 4
Backlash against police
Last week, Bilal was shot dead by police in a street near his home in Tripoli's impoverished Tebbaneh neighborhood. The police said Bilal had threatened arresting officers with a hand grenade and was gunned down before he could throw it. But his family and dozens of eyewitnesses say Bilal was drinking juice and eating a sandwich when police riddled him with bullets. Either way, Bilal's death has triggered calls for revenge in Tebbaneh and stoked simmering sympathy for Fatah al-Islam.
"The situation is unbearable for us right now. We feel the government's knives on our necks, and only Fatah al-Islam is there to protect us," says local resident Mohammed Awad.
Graffiti on the stairwell of the Mahmoud family's dingy, rundown apartment building calls for God's blessing on Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq who was killed by US troops almost a year ago.
"[Bilal] was a very religious boy and never said a bad word about anyone," says Bilal's father, Riad Mahmoud.
"He was only 24 years old," cries Nawfal, Bilal's grandmother, sitting in a corner of the small room. "What good were those 24 years? He spent so many of them in prison," says the elderly woman in a voluminous full-length black dress and white head scarf as she rises to offer a tray of chocolates to visitors.
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