A car bomb kills a top Lebanese terrorism investigator in early 2008 (NYTimes)

A Mujahideen Bleed-Through From Iraq? Part Two - A Look at Lebanon

By Michael Scheuer

11/05/2008 - Lebanon always has been a country whose people are more loyal to family, clan, tribe, and faith than to the concept of Lebanon as a united nation-state. Since 2003, this existing internal divisiveness has been sharpened by the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq and the U.S.-led international effort to drive Syria out of Lebanon. The former opened a role for Lebanon as part of the path for would-be jihadis traveling to fight in Iraq. The latter – together with the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war - forced the precipitate decline of effective governmental authority in Lebanon, allowing jihadis to use the country for transit and basing. This made it a target for aggressive expansionist efforts by Saudis and other Salafis and encouraged the rapid growth of internal violence between political and religious factions. Overall, the Iraq war and Syria’s departure from Lebanon gave al-Qaeda and its Islamist allies an unprecedented opportunity to infiltrate their influence and manpower into Lebanon, as well as help strengthen the Sunni Salafist trend in northern Lebanon.

Maulana Sami ul-Haq

The Father of the Taliban: An Interview with Maulana Sami ul-Haq

Maulana Sami ul-Haq is the director and chancellor of Pakistan's famous madrassa, Darul uloom Haqqania, Akora Khattak. He has served in this post since the death of his father, Maulana Abdul ul-Haq, the founder of the madrassa, in 1988. Darul uloom Haqqania is where many of the top Taliban leaders, including its fugitive chief, Mullah Omar, attended. It is widely believed that the madrassa was the launching pad for the Taliban movement in the early 1990s, which is why Sami ul-Haq is also called the "Father of the Taliban." Besides running his madrassa, Maulana Sami has a long political history as a religious politician. He was among the founders of Pakistan's Muttahida Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) coalition of six Islamic religious parties. He recently spoke with Jamestown analyst Imtiaz Ali.

PREVIOUS INTERVIEWS

• Afghanistan's Veteran Jihadi Leader: An Interview with Qazi Mohammad Amin Waqad
• New Security Realities and al-Qaeda’s Changing Tactics: An Interview with Saad al-Faqih

• Persuading the Uncertain and Punishing the Recalcitrant: Al-Qaeda Seeks to Absorb Iraq’s Awakening Councils (Terrorism Monitor - November 7, 2008)
• Latin American Narco-Dollars Financing Hezbollah’s Growing Establishment (Terrorism Monitor - November 7, 2008)
• Iran’s Kurdish Militants Under Pressure from Joint Turkish-Iranian Assaults (Terrorism Monitor - November 7, 2008)
• Coalition Attack Brings an End to the Career of al-Qaeda in Iraq’s Second-in-Command (Terrorism Monitor - November 7, 2008)
• Turkey Reorganizes Security Structure to Combat Terrorism (Terrorism Focus - November 5, 2008)
• India and Pakistan Address Terrorism Issues as Relations Deteriorate (Terrorism Focus - November 5, 2008)