By Farah Halime

For 34 days in the summer of 2006, the world’s attention
turned to Lebanon, where a bloody war erupted between the country’s
militant group Hezbollah and longtime enemy Israel. But for Habib
Haddad, who was hundreds of miles away from family at the University of
Southern California, searching for local-language updates was almost
impossible because he did not have access to an Arabic keyboard. Enter
Yamli, the online transliteration service he invented that allows
searches in Arabic using phonetic English.

When, in
2012, Yahoo acquired the company’s licensing rights, Haddad joined the
ranks of an impressive group of industrious Lebanese entrepreneurs who
have dominated multiple global companies across industries — telecoms,
logistics, automobiles. In total, the 35-year-old Haddad has been
involved as an engineer, angel investor or founder in no fewer than 10
companies in the Middle East. “Things that don’t work excite me,” says
Haddad, speaking over the phone from Beirut. “It’s the same reason I
live in Lebanon. A lot of things are broken in this country.”

by Vivian Haddad

Beirut-Under the sponsorship of the United Nations in Beirut, singer
Tania Kassis has launched a new song called “Al-Ard lel Jamii” (Land for
All). The event was hosted by ABC Ashrafieh Mall and was attended by a
number of ambassadors, politicians, and media figures.

A chorus of 100 vocalists from four musical bands participated in
this song, which speaks about the land of peace, that all people dream
about and that it can be reached through unity and love.

Speaking during the event, Kassis pointed that the song is a peace
appeal from Lebanon to the world in the midst of disappointment and
frustration that control today’s generation.

She said that she wanted this appeal to be universal and to address
the frustrated youth that is concerned about its future as a result of
the terrorist attacks worldwide. “Land for All”, which will be sang by
Kassis on July 9 at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, is
composed by Fadi al-Rai and distributed by Michel Fadel. The song is
taken from the international music “Vorto Carmina Burana” mixed with an
eastern rhythm. The song has been played by Kiev Orchestra led by
Maestro Vladimir Cerinco.

By Roberto de Mattei
rorate-caeli.blogspot.com

The
British referendum of June 23rd (Brexit) has sanctioned the definitive
collapse of a myth: the dream of “a “Europe without frontiers”, built on
the ruins of its national States.

The “Constitution” project worked on by the Convention on the Future of
Europe between 2002 and 2005, was rejected by two popular referendums,
in France on May 29th 2005 and in Holland on June 1st of the same year.
Nevertheless, the Eurocrats never gave up. After two years of
“reflection”, the Lisbon Treaty, which should have been ratified
exclusively through parliament, was approved by the EU Heads of State
and Government on December 13th 2007. The only country called upon to
voice their opinion on the referendum, Ireland, rejected the Treaty on
June 13th 2008, but unanimity being necessary from the signatory States,
a new referendum was imposed on the Irish, which thanks to very strong
economic and media pressure, finally gave the positive result.

By Phyllis Chesler

Before dawn Monday, four suicide bombers killed five and wounded at
least a dozen in the Lebanese Christian town of al-Qaa. Later that
night, as townspeople prepared to bury their dead, four more suicide
bombers hit.

The attacks underscored just how endangered are Christians who live
in today’s Muslim world. As the United States debates how many Mideast
refugees to accept and who should get priority, the answer is staring us
in the face: Those most in need of refuge are Christians and Yazidis
who live among Muslims.

On June 19, a suicide bomber killed three people as he detonated
himself at a memorial to massacred Christians in Qumishi, Syria. On June
9, a Pakistani Muslim mob badly beat a man merely because he was a
Christian. On June 5, two people were killed when Islamists targeted a
church with rockets in Syria; the same day, a Christian man was hacked
to death at his shop by Islamists in Bangladesh. On June 2, in Nigeria,
Muslim youths beheaded a Christian woman for allegedly insulting
Mohammed.

Beirut (AFP) – The Lebanese army
said Thursday it had foiled attacks planned by the Islamic State
jihadist group on a tourist site and a crowded area, arresting five
“terrorists”.

“Military
intelligence services have foiled two terrorist operations prepared by
Daesh that would have targeted an important tourism site and a crowded
area,” the army said in a statement, using an Arabic name for IS. It
was not clear when the arrests took place, but the military official
said the attacks were to have been carried out “10 days ago”.

They
would have targeted “the Casino du Liban as well as a crowded area,
like a shopping centre, the southern suburbs of Beirut or indeed the
(downtown) neighbourhoods of Hamra or Ashrafiyeh”, the official said.

He
said “suicide bombers and armed men” were to have carried out the
attacks, and added that investigations would follow on other possible
cells and potential targets.

catholicherald.co.uk

Destitute refugees now comprise half the people living in Lebanon,
Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, has
said during his visit to New York. He added that refugees are attractive targets for terrorist
recruiting, and their continued presence threatens to drown Lebanon’s
identity, he said.

Cardinal Rai spoke yesterday at Catholic Near East Welfare
Association headquarters in New York while in the United States for a
pastoral visit. A permanent solution to the refugee crises throughout the Middle East
requires lasting peace and the repatriation of refugees, not
resettlement to third countries, he added. “A political solution to the conflicts ought to be the top priority,
and a just, global and permanent peace should be established as soon as
possible,” the Lebanese cardinal said.

“We would ask nations to help refugees where they are; but it’s not
enough to help, they should also stop wars, because every day we are at
war, we’re creating new refugees,” Cardinal Rai said. “We must find a
just, global and lasting peace for refugees, repatriate them and help
them rebuild their lives and businesses.”

By Theguardian.com

The Lebanese government has warned of a heightened terrorist threat
after eight suicide bombers attacked a Christian village on the border
with Syria, in the latest spillover of its conflict into Lebanon.

The village of al-Qaa was targeted on Monday in two waves of suicide
attacks that killed five people. The first group of bombers attacked
before dawn and the second later at night, two of them blowing
themselves up near a church. Security officials believe Islamic State militants were behind the attack. There has been no claim of responsibility.

In reference to the number of assailants, the Lebanese government
said the attack and the unfamiliar way it was carried out represented a
new phase of “confrontation between the Lebanese state and evil
terrorism”. The prime minister, Tammam Salam, “expressed his fear that what
happened in Qaa is the start of a new wave of terrorist operations in
different areas of Lebanon”, the information minister, Ramzi Jreij, said
in televised comments after a cabinet meeting.

By Mona Helmi – english.aawsat.com

Tripoli has been linked over the past years with conservative
movements and many extremist cells that were dismantled in northern
regions like Akkar and Daniye. The Islamic scene in the city has long
been influenced by the local complicated politics and the adversity
toward al-Assad regime, which led to many terroristic attacks against
the so-called Hezbollah that supports Assad’s troops in Syria.

Speaking about the conservative Islamic movements in Lebanon, Dr.
Abdul Ghani Imad, expert in Islamic movements’ affairs explains that
Sheikh Salem al-Shahhal established the first conservative Islamic group
during the forties. His movement was missionary and aimed to amend the
wrong practices of Muslims. On the political side, Shahhal didn’t have a
clear position. He stood for the parliamentary elections in 1972, but
he withdrew in favor of the “Jamaa Islamiya” (Islamic Group).

Many other extremist schools emerged in the region, like the school
of Salem el-Rafei, who was among the first voices calling for “Jihad” in
Syria, Bilal Dekmak , Sheikh Nabil Raheem or Sheikh Mohammad Khidr,
along with radical Islamic movements like “Al-Tawhid” (Islamic
Unification Movement) established by Sheikh Saeed Shaaban.

By sarah el deeb, associated press

A prominent dual British-Lebanese journalist who hosted a talk show
critical of the government of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi
arrived in Beirut on Tuesday after authorities in Cairo briefly detained
her and then deported her, her lawyer said.

Lilian Daoud, a former BBC reporter, could not immediately be reached
for comment. Her lawyer, Zyad el-Elaimy, wrote on his Twitter account
that her first comment after landing in Beirut was that she will
challenge the decision to deport her.

There was no formal explanation for Daoud’s deportation from Egypt.
An Egyptian security official, speaking Monday on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters, said
Daoud’s residency permit expired after her contract with the private
ONTV station in Egypt was terminated.

“It’s the first time someone is deported in this fashion in Egypt,”
el-Elaimy told The Associated Press, speaking by telephone from Cairo.
He said even criminals are asked to leave, not taken from their homes.