https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/lebanonnews/hezbollah-execution-video-sparks-online-outrage
Hezbollah “execution” video sparks online outrage Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RWhLQ_o5s88 A gory online video that appears to show Hezbollah fighters executing gravely wounded Syrian rebels has sparked outrage and threatens to worsen sectarian tensions in Lebanon. The video shows armed men in fatigues, at least one wearing the yellow arm band sported by the Lebanese Shiite movement, dragging several bloodied men out of a van and shooting them dead. The men speak in the Lebanese dialect of Arabic, and at the end of the video one man calls them over, saying: "One moment, one moment. We are doing our duty, not avenging ourselves." The others call out: "For the sake of God, for the sake of God." The one minute, 40 second video's authenticity could not be confirmed, and it was unclear when or where it might have been shot. Hezbollah declined to comment on it. Al-Arabiya television said it may have been filmed during the battle for Al-Qusayr, a strategic Syrian town near the Lebanese border that Syrian troops recaptured from rebels with the help of Hezbollah earlier this year. If confirmed, the video could stoke sectarian tensions in Lebanon, where political factions are bitterly split between support for the Sunni-led insurgency and President Bashar al-Assad's regime, a close ally of Shiite Iran and Hezbollah. Fighting has periodically broken out in Lebanon since the start of the Syrian uprising in March 2011 and recent bombings and rocket attacks have raised the specter of a return to the 1975-1990 civil war. Lebanese media largely steered clear of the video, either because they were unable to confirm it or for fear of worsening tensions. But the video triggered outrage on Twitter, with many observers comparing Hezbollah to radical Sunni rebel groups that have carried out past atrocities. "Between the Sunni Salafi jihadists and the Shiite fundamentalist jihadists, we really have to watch our backs," wrote Mustafa Fahas on Facebook. On Twitter at least one user compared the video to the infamous clip of a Syrian rebel eating the organs of a dead Alawite, a member of the Shiite offshoot sect to which Assad also belongs. "Horrific and disgusting," Lebanese editor Angie Nassar wrote in a Twitter post linking to the video. Hezbollah -- which has always presented itself as Lebanon's first line of defense against Israel -- has come under intense criticism for its decision to enter the Syrian civil war on behalf of the Assad regime. It has said it joined the battle to protect Lebanon from extreme Islamists among the ranks of the Syrian rebels. Syria has long been a key part of the supply line between Iran and Hezbollah, whose military power dwarfs that of the Lebanese state and which fought Israel to a bloody stalemate in 2006. Sex, media, and jihadWith news reports about sex jihad, truth is secondary [image: Giulio Rosati painting] It’s always exciting to talk about sex. Combined with Islamism, sex could become the most discussed and read about topic in the media. That’s why *Jihad Al Nikah* (sex jihad) has become the obsession of everyone writing or working on Syria. It is an exotic topic for Western media outlets and audiences alike. Meanwhile, Arab media uses it to indulge the viewers in suppressed fantasies. Truth is secondary here. It doesn’t matter anymore if *Jihad al Nikah* is an actual phenomenon. Either way, it takes over everything else that matters. The same can be said about all the other shocking information coming from Syria, including the savagery of beheadings, the heart-eating man, the burning of churches, and the barbarism of the rebellion. These realities, although factual and truthful, are often exaggerated. They also overwhelm everything else about Syria and the revolution. They take over all other layers and make genuine calls for freedom and reform insignificant. Al-Qaeda may be a sexy topic, but sex jihad is even more so. The regime’s obsession with sex and rape has always been a political and cultural tool used for oppression. It did not start with the revolution. Assad’s prisons were the sights of horrible sexual abuse and torture of prisoners, both men and women, for many years. But the Syrian regime knows how to play this game quite well, much better than the opposition at least. From extremism to minorities, Assad knows how to play his cards. He has presented his regime to the international community as the sole protector of the Christians in Syria, highlighting al-Qaeda burning churches and its attacks on Christian villages. Of course, ISIS’s sectarian rhetoric makes Assad’s task an easy one, but that does not mean that the rebels seek to eliminate the Christian presence in Syria. The Syrian regime’s thugs raped<http://www.womenundersiegeproject.org/blog/entry/syria-has-a-massive-rape-crisis> and tortured many women and children, according to a number of human rights organizations. Its allies in Lebanon and Iran have also been using and abusing Mutaa marriage<http://www.womenundersiegeproject.org/blog/entry/syria-has-a-massive-rape-crisis>for political reasons for many years now. (Mutaa marriage has never been regarded as an immoral practice by the regime because it is practiced by its allies. It has become a social and political necessity.) But sex jihad is a different story, yet the double standards are barely noticeable. Just one story about a 16 year-old-girl saying on regime media that she practices sex jihad was enough for every media outlet to make it a major headline. Rawan Kaddah was her name, and she claimed<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV4h-GpVoMM> on Syrian state TV that her father forced her to practice sex jihad. Of course, the story was reported even as many doubts are emerging about its accuracy. (According to Kaddah’s family, their daughter was kidnapped by the Syrian security forces after returning back from school last November in her southwestern hometown in Daraa.) Most indicators suggest that the story was fabricated by the regime, and there is little information on the practice of sex jihad in Syria among the rebels in general. And so, the proportion of this story’s coverage in the media despite the little information available is indeed surreal. Again, the double standards work both ways. Media often looks for buzz, not truth. And, this subject gets more hits, so who cares, right? It seems everybody is in denial. Many say that the Syrian revolution is ugly, so we shouldn’t get involved. Many also say that the Syrian rebels are all extremists and barbarians, and that’s why Assad is a better option. They even say that the Syrian opposition is all Sunni, which is why the regime is more secular. And, in the midst of all this misleading information comes reports about sex jihad, which gives everyone an excuse to accept Assad’s story. Not because of information and proof, but because it is an easier and guilt-free process. Of course, the Syrian rebellion is not ideal, and there is an ugly layer to it, but that does not mean that the Syrian regime is more secular or preferable than the rebels. Raping women in prison and torturing children is not more civilized than the heart-eating man. Forcing a girl to go on TV and say that she has practiced sex jihad is not more humane than beheading opponents on the battlefield. And, brutally killing children in Sunni villages and towns does not make Assad less sectarian than his opponents. Indeed, sectarianism was created by the regime’s favoritism from the very beginning: esteeming Alawites and Christians over Sunnis, and more recently massacring Sunnis while protecting Christians and other minority groups. Assad is clearly neither secular nor civilized, nor is he the protector of minorities. And sex jihad is just another game he uses to feed into the stereotypes of the West and the stigma that summarized the revolution as a ragtag group of extremists. The problem is that the Syrian opposition has lost the media game. The scarcity of information and inconsistent media campaigns on the rebels' part hands the regime easy victories. And every time the media gets distracted by stories about sex jihad and beheadings, the rebellion against Assad takes another hit. Sadly, it means that the Syrian revolution may be a very long one indeed. * * *Hanin Ghaddar is the managing editor of NOW. She tweets @haningdr * Inspection of new arrivals, a typical Orientalist fantasy painted by Giulio Rosati, 1858-1917. (Google image) https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentaryanalysis/sex-media-and-jihad
