Several Christian youth who hail from the northern coastal city of Tripoli have reportedly converted to Islam and pledged allegiance to the al-Qaida-affiliate al-Nusra Front similar to Elie al-Warraq, who was detained by the military intelligence.
Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Friday that al-Warraq, 22, who resides in Tripoli and hails from the northern district of Akkar, converted to extremist Islam and pledged allegiance to al-Nusra Front similar to other youth in the northern city.
The daily said that western intelligence is also pursuing a Christian Lebanese man who converted to Islam and arrived in Beirut a month ago.
“We are a patriotic family,” Tony al-Warraq, Elie's father, said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.
He stressed that the family supports the state and the army, expressing surprise at Elie's behavior and describing it as “abnormal.”
“We obtained information recently that a group tried to involve him in a security act.”
Tony expressed gratitude to the army intelligence for detaining Elie “before he got involved in any security act,” considering his son a “victim of ideas that some people planted in his mind.”