Tripoli

Is Tripoli, the hometown of a suspect in a failed train bombing plot in Germany, a breeding ground for terrorists?

The two faces of Tripoli

A few days ago, a man by the name of Jihad Hamad surrendered to the Lebanese authorities here in Tripoli. The 19-year-old is a suspect in last month's failed bombing of two German trains. The fact has been all over the German media and Readers from Germany are sending me emails asking me about my native city.

Last month, Tripoli was the subject of a damning article in the Washington Post. The article painted a bleak picture of a city that “is one of the most visible manifestations of the war, a rough-and-tumble city being transformed by growing radicalism and religious fervor”. But is the situation in Tripoli really that dire?

Tripoli, like many Arab mainly Sunni cities (Amman, Cairo, Aleppo, Abu Dhabi) is characterized by a dichotomy of character; a duality built on two main pillars: The tolerant, rich bourgeois traders, and the poor working class and unemployed Islamists.

While the Islamists can be loud and violent sometimes, it is the moderates that are really holding power in the city. When our last free and fair parliamentary election was held, not a single Islamist from Tripoli came close to parliament. The moderates are also in control of security and the Armed forces, and, like Mr. Hamad's story shows, the extreme elements are kept in check.

That said, the Islamists wield considerable leverage on the “cultural” image of the city. You can’t hold a “wild” party in Tripoli, or open a shop that sells alcohol, without getting threatening phone calls. Both ends of the city are emblazoned with statues of the five pillars of Islam, "boyfriend" is a dirty word and people with headscarves are the majority. Tripolitans, like many arabs, are advised to be hush-hush in their pursuits of pleasure or romance. The result is a city with 400,000 people, half of which are under 25, with zero nightlife.
Still, people with enough means can simply drive to more “exciting” places (usually with a Christian majority), like Batroon, Jbeil or even right next door, in El mina.

Hypocrisy? maybe, but this is how a lot of Muslim cities work, so don't be threatened by us.

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