Attacks on clerics could trigger conflict

Recent attacks on four Muslim preachers in Lebanon could trigger a sectarian conflict, the country's top Muslim religious scholar warned Monday. "This is how strife begins, " said Grand Mufti Mohammad Rashid Qabbani after visiting a Beirut hospital where two of the sheiks were receiving medical treatment, The (Beirut) Daily Star reported. Sunni scholars Mazen Hariri and Ahmad Fekran were attacked Sunday night after leaving a mosque in downtown Beirut. In a separate incident the same day, sheiks Ibrahim Abd al-Lattif and Omar Imani were attached in the Shiyah quarter of Beirut as they traveled to the Bekaa Valley. Five people suspected in the attacks were arrested, the Lebanese army command said in a statement, adding that other suspects were still being sought. Qabbani blamed both Sunni and Shiite leaders in Lebanon for the attacks, calling the incidents part of a conspiracy to draw the country into the conflict in neighboring Syria. He said the possibility of internal conflict must be stopped 'at the outset." The religious leader's statement was echoed by Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, who said "the situation could easily turn [to the worse]."