January 29, 2010 - The Daily Star - Lebanon Majdel Anjar residents protest against imam abduction

Majdel Anjar residents protest against imam's abduction

Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Residents of the Bekaa Valley town of Majdel Anjar staged a demonstration on the highway leading to the Lebanese-Syrian border in protest against the abduction of their town’s imam. The residents were able to cut the road leading to the border but the Lebanese Army managed to clear the highway following extensive contacts with Majdel Anjar MPs and other authorities.
On Thursday, the army continued efforts to find the imam, two days after he was abducted by unknown assailants.
Sheikh Mohammad Abdel Fatah al-Majzoub was abducted from outside the Imam al-Rifaii Mosque overnight Tuesday.
His whereabouts were not known since 11:30 pm Tuesday after he made a phone call from his cell to his father, saying “please help!”
“‘Dad, I …,’ then I heard a noise and the voice of someone telling him to close his mobile,” Majzaoub’s father said.
A search was immediately launched. His white Mercedes was found with the engine still running at the side of a road leading to a sugar factory in Majdel Anjar. His white turban was also found on the ground.
The pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat reported on Thursday that Majzoub had been in dispute with radical groups in the nearby village of Kamid al-Loz dating back to the time when he was the imam of that town. The dispute made him leave to settle in his hometown of Majdel Anjar, the report said.
Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud told OTV television on Wednesday that the Lebanese army’s Intelligence Branch and security forces were following up on the case.
Baroud said authorities were aware of “previous disputes” in the Majdel Anjar region, adding that these would be taken into consideration during the course of the investigation.
On Wednesday, Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani condemned “all actions aiming to shake Lebanon’s stability.” – The Daily Star, with Naharnet