BEIRUT—Following the Lebanese government’s sinful decision in August to ban arms, the Islamic Group in Lebanon (al-Jama’a al-Islamiyah) stated it prefers discussing a defensive strategy to form a military force that includes Lebanese of all stripes, with the aim of confronting the Zionist enemy.

On Sunday, during a mass rally organized by the group in support of Gaza in Tripoli, Azzam al-Ayoubi, a leading figure, pointed out that the group “has prepared itself to thwart normalization [with Israel in Lebanon], just as it thwarted the May 17 agreement.”

He added, “There are efforts and conspiracies aimed at subjugating the nation so that it will shed its cloak of resistance and confrontation with the enemy.”  

Al-Ayoubi called on the Lebanese government to “convene a dialogue session to discuss a strategy for defending Lebanon in light of the ongoing attacks, instead of talking about disarming the resistance under flimsy pretexts.”
Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyah’s leading figure further noted that “there is nothing to guarantee that when the enemy invades our land, the state will be present and have the strength to confront an enemy that is lurking for our nation.” 

He warned that “the enemy, and behind it the evil American administration, does not want Lebanon or its army to be strong. We have all heard the positions of the enemy leaders when they obligated the army to destroy every weapon found in the south.” 

Al-Ayoubi stated that “the U.S., along with the world’s powers, wants a weak Lebanon, and the army is forbidden from possessing any weapon capable of confronting the enemy there.”  

Al-Ayoubi pointed out that “the enemy does not care about any country, and it continues its violations and aggression against Arab countries.”

He warned that “what we witnessed in Syria is the greatest evidence, when enemy aircraft bombed Syria with the aim of destroying its weapons. The enemy does not care about any concessions offered to it, but rather fears men before weapons.”

Reportedly, the Saudi envoy to Lebanon, Yazid bin Farhan, has assigned a team at the Saudi embassy in Beirut to prepare a comprehensive file on al-Jama’a al-Islamiyah and its affiliated associations in all regions to be included on the list of associations banned from dealing with, both in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf.

In parallel, Qatari donors suspended their commitments to the group’s associations and institutions. The Qatar Charity ended its funding for programs of the Islamic Medical Association in the north and the Al-Iman schools.

Besides, the Kuwaiti Zakat House also suspended its partnership with the Lebanese Association for the Support of Scientific Research, the group’s affiliate, which is responsible for university scholarships.

Since the launch of the Gaza Support Front from Lebanon, the Fajr Forces, the military wing of al-Jama’a al-Islamiyah has offered a large number of martyrs. While some may have thought it was a new organization emerging on the Lebanese scene, the group has a long history of resisting the Israeli expansionist project.

In the early 1950s, al-Jama’a al-Islamiyah was founded after a group of Lebanese youth in the northern city of Tripoli were influenced by Islamic thought. At the time, there was no clear framework or body to champion the work of this group of young people.

However, the Syrian doctor Mustafa al-Sibai (founder of the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and commander of the Syrian Battalion that fought in Palestine in 1948) was deported to Lebanon in 1952 following Adib al-Shishakli’s second military coup.

At the same time, another Islamic group emerged in Beirut, known as the “Jama’at Servants of the Merciful” founded by Beiruti Sheikh Muhammad Omar al-Daouk, who was keen to distinguish himself as much as possible from the Muslim Brotherhood in the region, both out of concern for the association and out of awareness of the danger posed to anyone who held an Islamic identity at that time.

The deportation of Mustafa al-Siba’i to Lebanon facilitated a rapprochement between the two groups. However, following the outbreak of the July 1958 revolution against Lebanese Maronite President Camille Chamoun, who sought to link Lebanon to the American project in the region, the Tripoli group tended to train its youth to bear arms and defend their areas, while the Beirut group preferred to stay away from military and political activity and commit to religious work.

In 1964, one of the Tripoli group’s publications gained the admiration of Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt, who had just assumed the Ministry of the Interior and launched a broad campaign against the moral corruption prevalent in Lebanon at that time. In 1964, Jumblatt contributed to granting al-Jama’a al-Islamiyah a legal status.

With the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War and the beginning of attacks by the Israeli enemy and the “South Lebanon Army” militia, the Fajr Forces—the military wing of al-Jama’a al-Islamiyah, emerged.

Its goal was to carry out guerrilla operations against the occupation without declaring the group’s name or claiming responsibility for security purposes. 
The Fajr Forces were not officially announced until after the martyrdom of the first group of its fighters, following the Israeli invasion.

Following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the first military acts by the Fajr Forces, on October 18, 2023, targeted Israeli army positions with missile strikes. Then, it subsequently carried out a series of operations, while the Israeli enemy assassinated a number of its cadres.

 Despite its humble participation, the Washington Institute for Strategic Studies published a report discussing the alleged dangers posed by the “Fajr Forces.”

The American think tank stressed the need to place the group on the terrorist list to contain its potential harm as quickly as possible, and its potential impact on the Sunni community in Lebanon, including the possibility of mobilizing it to participate in the fight against the Israeli entity.

Although the group’s members, according to the report’s estimates, do not exceed 500 individuals, its danger lies not in its numbers or even its equipment, but rather in the fact that it provides Sunni cover for the Lebanese resistance against the Israeli occupation.

Although the report estimates that the group’s members do not exceed 500, its danger lies not in its numbers or even its equipment, but rather in the fact that it provides Sunni cover for the Lebanese resistance against the Israeli occupation.

The report warned against the Sunni community’s support for the resistance (representing a quarter of Lebanon’s population) after Washington invested millions over nearly two decades to distance it from the jihadist ideology of resistance against the Israeli occupation.

It also lamented the absence of a unified Sunni leadership amid growing Sunni sympathy for the events in Gaza, which could provide fertile ground for mobilization and incitement to fight against the Israeli occupation.

The Washington Institute for Strategic Studies cautioned that the harmony between the Lebanese Islamic Resistance Front, represented by its Sunni and Shiite poles, helps overcome internal divisions and work and coordinate toward a unified goal that does not serve Israeli interests.