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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER 23, 1983
PAGE 9
The attackers, it is suggested, surely must know that such bomb
ings will force the Americans, the French and other Western
embassies in the Gulf to hide behind the prison-camp-style bar
riers of cement and concertina wire that now isolate the American
and French Embassies in Beirut from the local population•••. But
the more isolated these foreign diplomatic missions become and
the more repressive the security measures the host countries
take, the more fertile the ground becomes for spreading revolu
tionary ideas. Again, Beirut is �-prime example, where with each
passing day of misery more and more posters of Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini seem to appear on walls around town•.••
The Iranians have clearly been stepping up their efforts to
foment Islamic revolutionary zeal in the region. The presence in
Baalbek, Lebanon, of 350 Iranian Revolutionary Guards and clerics
seems to typify the missionary efforts they are trying to organ
ize. It was widely noted by the Lebanese press that in March 1982
a conference was held in Teheran by Iran's leading Islamic theo
logians on the subject of the "Ideal Islamic Government." After
the seminar, a decision was reportedly made by the Khomeini
Government to train thousands of Moslem militants from more than
20 Islamic nations and then return them to their home coi:intr'Tes
as "messengers of true fsiarn."
-- -
A special school was reportedly set up just north of the Iranian
city of Qum, where 2,000 of these revolutionary missionaries are
being trained....
It is believed that some of the suicide
drivers for the recent truck-bomb attacks were recruited there.
The fear of being overrun by revolutionary Shiites is causing several Sunni
Islams nations to become much more strict in religious observance.
The
Sudan is a case in point, where severe punishments against thieft, adultery
and possession of alcohol have been reintroduced. The roughly one-fourth
of the Sudan's population which is Christian is alarmed. The rules apply to
them too, with only slight lessening in some cases (25 lashes for using
alcohol as against 40 for Moslem offenders}.
In Beirut, the population is said to be living on the edge of exhaustion.
The city is ruined, virtually unlivable. It is almost impossible to drive
in the city, given all the roadblocks. The local citizenry's perception of
the value of the American forces has dropped considerably, reports an
article in the November 28, NEW YORK TIMES:
It was almost midnight, and the East Beirut dinner party honoring
a visiting American columnist was corning to a close. All night
the American guests had been pummeled with the same questions:
"What are the Americans going to do for us? How are they going to
save Lebanon?" All night the American guests responded by saying
only the Lebanese could save themselves.•••
The scene was a disturbing one but highly revealing of the love
hate attitude many Lebanese are developing toward the Marine
contingent based here. On the one hand, people say they would be
lost if the marines left; but. on the other hand, they cannot