{"id":1967,"date":"2005-02-15T21:50:00","date_gmt":"2005-02-16T02:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?p=1967"},"modified":"2005-02-15T21:50:00","modified_gmt":"2005-02-16T02:50:00","slug":"shades_of_the_past_after_hariris_death_in_lebanon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/02\/shades_of_the_past_after_hariris_death_in_lebanon\/","title":{"rendered":"Assassination of Rafik Hariri: Shades of the past after Hariri&#8217;s death in Lebanon"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tr>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/Hariri.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"right\">\n<div class=\"caption\">Have you seen this man?<\/div>\n<p><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>When former five-time Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a massive car bomb in central Beirut on Monday, it marked the end of a decade-long renaissance for the country after years of conflict. Hariri is best known for his stewardship of post-civil war Lebanon, where he managed to <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk%2F2%2Fhi%2Fmiddle_east%2F4266053.stm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">unite<\/a> warring factions and spur a spate of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.architectureweek.com%2F2000%2F1220%2Fbuilding_1-1.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">rebuilding<\/a> in the formerly pock-marked Beirut.  While not giving up a lavish lifestyle, he also poured money into post-war Lebanon, paying the tuitions of 30,000 students at home and abroad in order to build a new, more educated generation of Lebanese.  The billionaire politician (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesonline.co.uk%2Farticle%2F0%2C%2C60-1485702%2C00.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">self-made<\/a>, unlike most Middle East billionaires) had just resigned from his office in October and aligned with opposition parties that have called for Syria to withdraw its 13,000 troops from Lebanon. Naturally, blame for the incident has drifted towards Syria, who once maintained up to 35,000 troops in the country after the outbreak of the 15-year civil war there in 1975 (didn\u2019t help much, apparently). Syria has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.turkishpress.com%2Fworld%2Fnews.asp%3Fid%3D050215170638.t5h33gq6.xml\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">denied<\/a> responsibilty for the blast, blaming Israel instead (though few other Lebanese have). Syria has also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.swissinfo.org%2Fsen%2Fswissinfo.html%3FsiteSect%3D143%26sid%3D5540456\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">rejected<\/a> UN and international calls in the past to withdraw its troops, saying they are needed to maintain stability and unity. Demonstrating this unity, Lebanese of all backgrounds poured into the streets to mourn the Sunni Muslim Hariri, often taking out their anger on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FRTGAM.20050215.w2leba0215%2FBNStory%2FInternational%2F\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">hapless<\/a> (and unarmed) Syrians. Also, Washington immediately <a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.go.com%2FPolitics%2FwireStory%3Fid%3D502477\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">recalled<\/a> its ambassador to determine a course of (military?) action. Hariri\u2019s death was the latest in a series of murders (some not so mysterious) of prominent politicians in past decades, each of whom tried to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com%2F%3Fpage%3D7%26section%3D0%26article%3D59085%26d%3D16%26m%3D2%26y%3D2005\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">assert<\/a> Lebanon\u2019s independence before being, er\u2026 liberated.   And, like the 15-year civil war whose memories are now <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FLebanese_Civil_War\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">refreshed<\/a> in the minds of Lebanon\u2019s people, it shows again that it is so much easier to destroy than to build.<\/p>\n<p><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Zahed Amanullah is associate editor of altmuslim.com. He is based in London, England.\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri, who spearheaded the rebuilding of Lebanon, shows again that it is so much easier to destroy than to build.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":531,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-briefings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Assassination of Rafik Hariri: Shades of the past after Hariri&#8217;s death in Lebanon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri, who spearheaded the rebuilding of Lebanon, shows again that it is so much easier to destroy than to build.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/02\/shades_of_the_past_after_hariris_death_in_lebanon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Assassination of Rafik Hariri: Shades of the past after Hariri&#8217;s death in Lebanon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri, who spearheaded the rebuilding of Lebanon, shows again that it is so much easier to destroy than to build.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/02\/shades_of_the_past_after_hariris_death_in_lebanon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"altmuslim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-02-16T02:50:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/Hariri.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"zahedamanullah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"zahedamanullah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/02\/shades_of_the_past_after_hariris_death_in_lebanon\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/02\/shades_of_the_past_after_hariris_death_in_lebanon\/\",\"name\":\"Assassination of Rafik Hariri: Shades of the past after Hariri&#8217;s death in Lebanon\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2005-02-16T02:50:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2005-02-16T02:50:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/871b6e097b0060bce500f444bd5940ba\"},\"description\":\"The assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri, who spearheaded the rebuilding of Lebanon, shows again that it is so much easier to destroy than to build.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/02\/shades_of_the_past_after_hariris_death_in_lebanon\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/02\/shades_of_the_past_after_hariris_death_in_lebanon\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/02\/shades_of_the_past_after_hariris_death_in_lebanon\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Assassination of Rafik Hariri: Shades of the past after Hariri&#8217;s death in Lebanon\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\",\"name\":\"altmuslim\",\"description\":\"Global perspectives on Muslim life, politics &amp; 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